What lessons did Sudan and Algeria derive from the Arab Spring?

In an article published in The Atlantic magazine, Ismail Kushkoush wonders about the lessons learned by the Algerian and Sudanese protestors from the Arab Spring and says that the demonstrations in the two countries share many points.

He adds that this participation comes despite the different local characteristics that led to the outbreak of popular protests in Algeria and Sudan.

He points out that four Arab countries witnessed during 2011 the formation of new governments, but only Tunisia was the real change in the end.

As for Sudan and Algeria in the current situation, people have taken to the streets to demand change, but the demonstrations were limited, especially in Sudan, where government forces did not hesitate to crush demonstrators.

Lessons and Experiences
Today's protesters in both countries have drawn lessons from the past, whether from their own experiences or the experiences of neighboring countries.

Although the situation in the two countries has not changed significantly, the efforts of the demonstrators have paid off somewhat, as they have prompted both Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign and the Sudanese army to overthrow President Omar al-Bashir.

Resumption of demonstrations
The Sudanese government has faced opposition from traditional political parties and "rebel" groups for many years, the author says. In 2011, most people who tried to fuel popular opposition against President Bashir were young activists and university students.

He adds that although their efforts did not last for long - where they were arrested, tortured and exiled - the protests erupted again in 2012 and 2013.

This year, the Sudanese Professional Gathering, an independent group of activists from different political and professional backgrounds, took the lead in leading the demonstrations. Its emergence as an independent body without a certain ideology played a crucial role in mobilizing the masses and restoring the effective and historic role of trade unions. Sudanese Politics.

The importance of unity
"We have recognized the importance of unity," said the writer, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals' Association, Sarah Abdul Jalil.

The writer praised the key role played by Sudanese women, especially young women, who called them "Kendakka", a special title for the ruling monarchs in the Sudan.

He believed that their participation in the protests reflected to some extent the changing demographic composition of the country, as well as an indication of the rejection of the prevailing view of Sudanese women as subjugated.

He stressed that the demonstrators in both Sudan and Algeria drew inspiration and courage from the national moments distinguished by the history of their country.

In Algeria and Sudan - and almost all the Arab Spring revolutions - the social networking sites, especially Facebook, WAATAB and Twitter, are of great importance to activists.

A smart generation
"The emergence of a generation of political and technological intelligence, capable of exploiting the resources available to it, has turned it into a cohesive and coherent work that has greatly helped the organizers of the Algerian protests," Kushkoush told an Algerian writer, Hicham Yaza.

For Sudan, the main difference this time is the perception of the importance of digital security and the removal of Internet restrictions by the government.

Army and confidence
He added that the demonstrators in Algeria and Sudan treated with caution the promises made by the army to avoid repeating the Egyptian scenario, and that the demonstrations in Algeria continued after the dismissal of Bouteflika, just as happened in Sudan with Bashir last week, pointing out that the organizers of the Sudanese protests insist on They will not be drawn into armed confrontations with the army as is the case with Syria.

He points out that in this sense, the protesters have emphasized the peaceful nature of the protests while at the same time encouraged to take to the streets in large numbers in order to avoid the fate of the protesters in the fourth square in Cairo, where hundreds of deaths by the Egyptian army in the coup in 2013.

Despite the differences in the local characteristics of the protests of Sudan and Algeria, the two countries share many points and lessons learned.

The writer attributed to the Egyptian activist Abdel Rahman Mansour to say that many describe the current situation in both countries "the late Arab Spring, they learned from the events of the first wave of the Arab revolutions."