The putsch option

摘要

ON THE STREETS of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, people are breathing a heady mix of fear and hope. Since April 11th, when a cabal of army officers pushed out the 75-year-old Omar al-Bashir, the country's president for the past 30 years, Sudan has had two more of its bloodied leaders step down. On April 12th, just a day after taking control, Awad Ibn Auf, the defence minister and head of the self-appointed "transitional military council", resigned. The next day, so did Salah Abdallah Gosh, the head of the much-feared National Intelligence and Security Service (niss).