Experts: Arab Spring not likely for Sudan

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KHARTOUM, Sudan, July 6 (UPI) -- Protesting against an autocratic Sudanese government may not be a sign the Arab Spring movement is sweeping the North African country, experts said.

The Sudanese have taken to the streets the past few weeks to protest what they call the repressive regime of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Add to that an economic crisis and heavily armed rebel groups across the country and Sudan could be headed toward toppling a dictatorship like neighboring Egypt and Libya, the newspaper said.

Andrew Natsios, a former U.S. special envoy to Sudan, though, said the Arab Spring reaching Sudan is unlikely because Bashir has a backup plan: 30,000 special security troops with a hidden weapons stockpile ready to defend the regime.

E.J. Hogendoorn, the Horn of Africa project director for the International Crisis Group, said a few crucial pieces were missing for a regime change in Khartoum.

"Unlike in Egypt, as of yet, the Sudanese lack an organized and disciplined party, like the Muslim Brotherhood, that can form the core of the protest movement," he said.