Sudan thwarts attempted coup, Army says situation under control

Sudan authorities say they have thwarted an attempted coup in the early hours of Tuesday, after containing “a limited number of people involved” in the putsch.

"There has been a failed coup attempt, the people should confront it," said Sudan official television, citing government sources on Tuesday.

It said the plotters had attempted to take over the state radio in Omdurman, across the river Nile from Khartoum, but "they failed.”

A senior military source said a group of officers "were involved in the attempt but were immediately suspended."

The report came as tanks appeared on the streets of the capital Khartoum, blocking the road to the main bridge across the Nile connecting the capital to its twin city Omdurman.

Sudan's Sovereign Council spokesperson Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman said later that the army will issue a statement in connection with the latest developments.

"All is under control. The revolution is victorious,” he wrote on Facebook.

Speaking to Russian news agency, Sputnik, a high-ranking Sudanese military source said that “military intelligence tracked the military who attempted the coup today.”

The African country is currently ruled by a transitional government composed of both civilian and military representatives that was installed in the aftermath of the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir in a palace coup two years ago.

The government, which has gradually been welcomed into the international fold, is facing growing economic and security challenges. It has vowed to fix the country's economy battered by decades of mismanagement, internal conflict, and international sanctions.

The government has, in recent months, been facing protests across the nation, over a series of tough economic reforms.

Military coups in Africa, the most important legacy of Western colonialism

Military coups in African countries, which have increased significantly in recent years, are the most important legacy of the Western colonial powers.

In their grab for influence and resources, colonial powers drew artificial borders across the Middle East and Africa, often arbitrarily splitting traditional tribal territories into new states.

These Western imperialists turned African countries into hotbeds of conflict and war, exposing them to violent changes of power to the point that the number of coups exceeded 200 since the late 1950s.

The latest military takeover in Africa took place last week in Guinea after the country’s president, Alpha Conde, was overthrown by the junta.

So far this year, there's been a noticeably higher than average number of coups compared with the previous two decades (Niger, Chad, Mali and Guinea).

While African countries have been striving for national unity since gaining independence from European colonists, most are still involved in political crises and military coups.

Experts say Europe's arbitrary post-colonial borders left Africans bunched into countries that don't represent their heritage, a contradiction that still troubles them today.

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