More than eight years after the Arab Spring broke out in the Middle East and North Africa, the autumn of the autocrats could be underway in Sudan and Algeria.

Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir was booted from power Thursday, following a week in which thousands of protesters camped out in the country’s capital, Khartoum.

Earlier this month, protests in Algeria prompted the country’s president of 20 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to resign.

The departures recalled the regional turmoil that brought down the longtime rulers of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen starting in 2011.

But developments since then have largely disappointed the Arab Spring activists who helped overthrow those dictators.

Countries have devolved into chaos, as in the case of Libya, or seen the old guard reassert its power, like in Egypt.

And in Syria, longtime dictator Bashar Assad has remained in power despite a grim, long-running civil war and the rise of the Islamic State within his borders.

The US appears to be taking a hands-off approach to the latest developments.

“The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future,” Robert Palladino, deputy spokesman for the State Department, said Thursday. “The Sudanese people have been clear that they are demanding a civilian-led transition.”

As in 2011, social media appears to be playing a key role in the latest protests. An image of a woman named Alaa Salah speaking to a crowd of smartphone-wielding protesters has become a symbol of the movement in Sudan.

Still, observers are cautious about what al-Bashir’s ouster means for the country, where military factions are vying to fill the power vacuum.

“This news, it’s progress, but I cannot call it the progress we really want,” academic and protest organizer Muawia Shaddad told The New York Times.

On Saturday, the new head of Sudan’s military council promised a civilian government will be formed after talks with the opposition, Reuters reported. Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abdelrahman also canceled an evening curfew and moved to release prisoners jailed under emergency laws that al-Bashir implemented before his downfall.

In Algeria, anti-regime protests kicked off after Bouteflika tried to extend his rule. The ongoing demos descended into violence Friday as riot police confronted protesters who rejected calls for elections from members of the old regime.

“Algerians are calling for radical change, a change in leadership,” Dalia Ghanem, an Algerian resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told CNN. “They didn’t want Bouteflika, they don’t want Bouteflika’s family or Bouteflika’s clan—and they don’t want the old guard to stay in power.”

Some have taken to calling the latest round of demonstrations “Arab Spring 2.0.”

But Syria’s Assad, one of the first rulers to be targeted by protesters, has maintained his hold on power through a brutal civil war. As many as 570,000 people have died during the conflict, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. More than 5.6 million others are refugees, according to the United Nations.

A British non-profit called Guernica Centre for International Justice was gathering refugees’ testimony at the end of last year.

The non-profit’s head, Toby Cadman, stated, “For too long millions of victims have suffered from the actions of the Syrian regime and live in fear that if they return to Syria they will once again be targeted by the regime.”

With Post Wire Services