The final days of 2021 in the Horn of Africa are demonstrating just how contagious authoritarianism and contempt for popular will can be—and how dangerous.

Monday’s coup in Sudan represents an attempt by forces who were never interested reform or democracy to derail the country’s transition and protect their own interests at the expense of the rest of the country. While General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan claims that “the Armed Forces will continue completing the democratic transition,” his actions and those of the military leadership reveal the undeniable reality—they will forcefully resist any attempt to finish the work of the revolution, reform the security services, and establish real lines of accountability between the people and their leaders.

On September 21, Sudanese authorities announced that they had thwarted an attempted coup. Civilian leaders assert that the incident is just another example of the urgent need for security-sector reform; meanwhile, military leaders have suggested that civilian mismanagement of the economy provides fertile ground for attempts to overthrow the government.