Who decides who should lead Sudan?

There is a question the international community should answer.

The US and European governments are increasingly engaging with Abdalla Hamdok as a principal civilian interlocutor on Sudan. He is now leading the Somoud coalition and has been meeting international diplomats in Washington and New York.

But when did engagement with one civilian political figure become a substitute for asking a much more fundamental question:

Do Sudanese people themselves want him to lead them?

Hamdok was Sudan’s Prime Minister during the transitional period. After the October 2021 military coup, he was briefly reinstated following an agreement with General Burhan, before resigning in January 2022 amid continuing protests and demands for a fully civilian government.

That history matters.

It does not make Hamdok illegitimate as a political actor. Nor does it mean he should be excluded from discussions about Sudan’s future.

But neither should his previous position automatically confer a mandate for the future.

Sudan has changed profoundly since 2021.

Millions of Sudanese have been displaced. Political alliances have changed. New civilian voices have emerged. The country has been transformed by a devastating war.

So the question is not whether Abdalla Hamdok should have a seat at the table.

The question is who gets to decide who speaks for Sudan — and ultimately, who leads it.

If the international community genuinely believes Sudan’s political future must be determined by Sudanese people, then that principle must apply to the civilian political leadership too.

Sudan does not need its future chosen for it.

It needs a process through which Sudanese people can choose it.