Explainer: What's at stake in Sudan's transition? The 2 sides still need to sign a constitutional declaration

Note from Sudan Watch Editor: To be clear, the two sides - Transitional Military Council (TMC) and Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) - still need to sign a constitutional declaration that is meant to complete the political deal. In my experience of blogging news about agreements signed in Sudan things change before the ink is dry, creating delay, after delay, after delay, going on year, after year, after year. Sigh.

Article by Reuters

Published Thursday 18 July 2019 4:35 PM

Explainer: What's at stake in Sudan's transition?

CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan’s ruling military council and an alliance of protest and opposition groups have signed a political accord on a three-year transition towards elections.

But progress towards a final deal has been slow and marred by violence, casting doubt on protesters’ hopes for civilian rule and democracy.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

In December, protests triggered by an economic crisis swept across Sudan, demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule.

On April 11 the military toppled and arrested Bashir, announcing the formation of a transitional military council.

But protests continued, demanding the transition be civilian-led.

The military council and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance began talks, which soon stalled over the make-up of a sovereign council to steer the transition.

At dawn on June 3, security forces — led according to witnesses by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — moved to clear a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum. Doctors linked to the opposition said 128 people were killed in the raid and ensuing violence. The government has confirmed 61 deaths.

Talks collapsed, resuming after several weeks under pressure from African-led mediators and after massive protests on June 30. Agreement on a power-sharing deal was announced on July 5.

WHO ARE THE KEY ACTORS?

The military council is formed of seven members, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Its most prominent member, however, is his deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who also leads the RSF and is widely known as Hemedti.

Both Burhan and Hemedti have close ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates due to Sudan’s participation in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The driving force in the FFC has been the Sudanese Professionals Association, which rose to prominence coordinating the protests against Bashir. It has no leader or strict hierarchy, though top members include Mohammad Naji al-Assam and Ahmed al-Rabie.

Prominent constituents of the alliance also include the Umma Party led by former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and three of Sudan’s five rebel groups.

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

The two sides still need to sign a constitutional declaration that is meant to complete the political deal.

That would allow transitional bodies to be formed, including a sovereign council that would include five officers selected by the military council, five civilians chosen by the FFC and another civilian to be agreed by both sides.

The initial agreement also provides for a government of technocrats and an independent investigation into recent violence.

WHAT HAS HELD UP A DEAL?

The deal was meant to be signed days after its announcement, but was thrown into doubt by a demand from the military council that its members be granted immunity from prosecution.

Blanket immunity is strongly opposed by the protest movement, already concerned about how an independent investigation could be guaranteed with the military still in charge.

They continue to hold rallies to honour those killed since protests started in December and call for accountability for their deaths.

More broadly, Sudan’s security forces see themselves as the country’s natural rulers and want to protect their sprawling economic interests.

“Their natural tendency is to surrender nothing and to maintain ...the last word in all matters of the state – which was the situation under Bashir essentially,” said Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

“...Upturning this arrangement is a formidable task.”

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

Sudan has a recent history of civil conflicts including in the western region of Darfur and South Kordofan and Blue Nile in the south. These could flare again if political turmoil continues.

Suffering for Sudanese civilians already subjected to a severe economic crisis could also intensify. Of a population of 44 million, more than 5 million people are in need of assistance and nearly 2 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

WHAT ARE THE STAKES INTERNATIONALLY?

Sudan sits in a volatile region in northeast Africa. Instability could have an impact on war-torn South Sudan, where a fragile peace deal was signed last September, and on Libya to the north, where fighting has recently escalated.

Wealthy Gulf states have an interest in Sudan because of its agricultural potential and its Red Sea ports. The RSF is contributing troops to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

European powers and Egypt are concerned about potential northward flows of migrants from Sudan, which is on one of the transit routes towards the Mediterranean.

Reporting by Aidan Lewis, Khalid Abdelaziz and Nadine Awadalla; Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by John Stonestreet

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SOURCE: https://in.reuters.com/article/sudan-politics-idINKCN1UD27

Sudan opposition in disagreement with the way power-sharing deal has been done and the content

Article from africanews.com

By AFP Thursday, 18 July 2019 

Sudan opposition skeptical about power-sharing deal

“We are not against the agreement in its sense, but we are in disagreement with the way it has been done and the content.”

Sudan’s opposition has raised skepticism about the recently signed power sharing deal.

After weeks of protests following the overthrow of long serving leader, Omar al-Bashir, military rulers finally inked the long-awaited deal.

But now, the opposition is raising some questions.

“Still in spite or irrespective of what had happened this morning, we are still open-minded to sit with leaders of FFC (Forces of Freedom and Change) to bring the agreement, whatever agreement they signed this morning back to the drawing table, to develop and improve it and make it acceptable to all Sudanese”, said Gibril Ibrahim, chairperson of Justice and Equality Movement.

Gibril Ibrahim, who is also leader of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, detailed some demands.

“We are not against the agreement in its sense, the purpose, but we are in disagreement with the way it has been done and the content. We were here to develop the content, to make sure that the issues that we consider instrumental, such as issues of peace, marginalization, issues of the vulnerable people in Sudan. FFC (Forces of Freedom and Change) has not yet done so.

The agreement reached on Wednesday between the military and the protesters also provides for the establishment of a “sovereign council”.

It’s a body responsible for managing the transition for a little over three years, first led by the military and then by civilians.

SOURCE AFP 

https://www.africanews.com/2019/07/18/sudan-opposition-skeptical-about-power-sharing-deal/

Sudan: TMC transitional deal casts spotlight on role of Hemeti’s RSF militia fighters

Article from Bloomberg.com

By: Mohammed Alamin and Okech Francis

Published: 18 July 2019, 05:00 BST Updated on 18 July 2019, 15:55 BST

Devils on Horseback Leader Holds Fate of Sudan in His Hands

- Transitional deal casts spotlight on role of Hamdan’s fighters

- Notorious militia is dominant force after Bashir’s overthrow

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan on July 17. Photographer: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images

A one-time camel trader turned leader of a Sudanese militia known as the “devils on horseback” now holds the fate of Africa’s third-largest nation in his hands.

Known popularly as Hemeti, Mohamed Hamdan dominates the military council that overthrew President Omar al-Bashir in April. He also commands the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group accused of killing more than 100 protesters in June in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. Swaggering and unaccountable, his fighters have become the most tangible obstacle to Sudan’s escape from three decades of dictatorship.

“All roads forward in Sudan now run into the Hemeti problem,” said Alan Boswell, an analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “Over time, his power will need to be reined in, yet any action against him at the moment risks civil war.”

The stakes go beyond Sudan, which has been rocked by coups, insurgencies and mass protests since independence in 1956. The battle for its future after the fall of Bashir -- an Islamist general and international pariah accused of war crimes -- has become another battleground for the biggest power rivalries in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been drawn in, looking to retain influence in the Red Sea nation as their tussles with Iran and Turkey for regional supremacy spread to the Horn of Africa.

The oil-rich Gulf nations in April pledged a combined $3 billion in aid to Sudan, which has been ravaged by decades of economic mismanagement that helped ignite the nationwide unrest in December. The promise of cash has given breathing space to the country’s new rulers -- mainly Bashir’s old guard -- and fueled opposition doubts there’ll be a genuine democratic transition as the elite seeks to defend its privileges.

Still, negotiations between the council and the opposition group that led the protests may have yielded a breakthrough. A deal signed Wednesday would see civilian and military representatives form an 11-seat sovereign council with executive responsibilities, and elections would be held after three years.

Photo: Tires burn during protests in Khartoum on June 3. Photographer: Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images

While the global outcry over the Khartoum massacre gave Sudan’s military rulers little choice but to reach a deal, they’ll probably seek to stall its enactment, according to Salah Aldoma, a professor of international relations at Omdurman Islamic University in Khartoum’s twin city. Hemeti’s denials of responsibility for the Khartoum attack have veered from blaming infiltrators in uniform, to vowing to hang any of his fighters who participated.

Feared Fighters

Rights groups including Amnesty International say Hemeti’s forces must withdraw from the city. On the streets, one can sense a palpable fear of his fighters, who regularly harass youths deemed sympathetic to the protests. Many residents make sure they’re home by nightfall to avoid any run-ins with the feared security services.

The militia earlier this week said in a statement it would be “gradually withdrawn from Khartoum in accordance with the security situation,” the state-run SUNA news agency reported.

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan surrounded by Rapid Support Forces in Qarri on June 15. Photographer: Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images

Hemeti’s vertiginous rise saw him deploy his fighters alongside Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The RSF, a reconstituted version of the brutal counter-insurgency group known as the janjaweed he helped organize in the western region of Darfur, is now regarded as Sudan’s most powerful military force.

While Sudan’s Gulf backers hope the nation follows the Egyptian path of military rule after the Arab Spring, they’re missing a key difference, said Boswell: “Sudan lacks a cohesive military.”

Ceding Influence

The army -- and the military council -- are officially led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a lieutenant-general who helped coordinate Sudan’s contribution to the Yemen campaign. Burhan, though, has ceded influence in public to Hemeti, who regularly addresses rallies aired on state TV.

Hemeti’s alleged role in the violence would complicate any designs he might have on the presidency. Much of Sudan’s remaining elite are desperate to improve relations with the U.S., which lifted a two-decade-old sanctions regime in 2017.

“Hemeti is looking for some guarantees so he can make a safe exit,” said Aldoma. “His use was only as a military assistant to oust Bashir.”

The Darfuri warlord is also likely to face resistance from the elites from the Nile Valley hundreds of miles to the east who’ve traditionally led the country.

While the RSF has helped them tame the protest movement and sideline some of Bashir’s hard-line Islamist supporters, the rest of Sudan’s military council could be ready to jettison him at a later date, according to Asiel Alamin, a prominent activist.

But in the short-term, any move to check Hemeti’s power risks splitting the council, said Harry Verhoeven, author of ‘Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan.’

“It’s a dangerous proposition and very few actors in the army, RSF or other security forces have a realistic vision of political order beyond the next couple of weeks,” he said.

(Update with statement from RSF in second paragraph under Feared Fighters subheadline.)

SOURCE: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-18/devils-on-horseback-leader-holds-fate-of-sudan-in-his-hands

Timeline and Profile of Sudan (BBC)

SUDAN, once the largest and one of the most geographically diverse states in Africa, split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence.

The government of Sudan gave its blessing to an independent South Sudan, where the mainly Christian and Animist people had for decades been struggling against rule by the Arab Muslim north.

However, various outstanding issues - especially the question of shared oil revenues and border demarcation - have continued to create tensions between the two successor states.

Sudan has long been beset by conflict. Two rounds of north-south civil war cost the lives of 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has driven two million people from their homes and killed more than 200,000.

Photo: Much of Sudan is arid (BBC caption/GETTY IMAGES)

To read more, click here: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094995

Read more profiles by BBC Monitoring

Uganda: Sudan's situation is dangerous - Museveni

UGANDA'S President Museveni has described the current fragile political situation in Sudan as "dangerous" because it is a deterrent to business.  

Mr Museveni made the remarks on Friday, 05 July while meeting the leader of Sudan's Transitional Military Council, Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on his visit to Uganda. 

"The type of conflict and agitation that has been experienced in the Sudan is dangerous because it scares away business and affects the livelihood of the people," he said after meeting the Sudan's military leader at State Lodge in Mbale.

Full story: Daily Monitor Uganda, Sun 07 Jul 2019 by Risdel Kasasira, Kampala

https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Sudan-s-situation-dangerous-Museveni/688334-5185612-n48xf0/index.html

US backs Sudan transition deal fearing state collapse

SUDAN's sovereign council of soldiers and civilians will lead Sudan for 3 years. Sudan situation is still fragile, there are still spoilers out there. The fact that Hemeti remains in power is problematic. Money from Saudi Arabia that used to go to the RSF would now back the transition. RSF forces have fought as ground troops for the Saudi-led coalition in their war against the Houthis in Yemen. US backs Sudan transition deal for fear of state collapse. Full story here below.

From The Financial Times

By ADRIENNE KLASA in London 

Published: Thursday 11 July 2019 

Title: Sovereign council of soldiers and civilians will lead country for 3 years

Photo: Sudan's Rapid Support Forces are feared by demonstrators © AP

The US has thrown its weight behind the power-sharing deal struck between Sudan’s military leaders and civilian groups, fearing that the alternative was a descent into state failure and violence.

“The situation is still fragile; there are still spoilers out there,” Tibor Nagy, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said in London. The deal was “absolutely a step forward” he added. 

“Out of all the scenarios out there some of the outcomes could have been extremely negative. We could have had the Somalia [or] Libya model, which is the absolute last thing that either Egypt or Ethiopia needed,” he added.

Mr Nagy had just returned from Sudan, where he met the political and military factions that unseated Omar al-Bashir in April after months of protest. Mr Bashir had been in power for three decades. Sudanese officials and activists credit US pressure, along with Gulf countries and regional negotiators, with bringing the two sides to an agreement.

While the US supported the political transition, Mr Nagy said it would not become involved in the details of any agreement between the ruling transitional military council and civilian groups. “Our goal is to achieve this transition that is acceptable to the Sudanese people, [but] it’s not for us to get into the sausage making,” he said.

The power-sharing deal, which is expected to be signed this week, grants five of the 11 seats on a “sovereign council” to civilians. Another five seats will go to the military. The final seat will go to a consensus appointment. The council, which will rule Sudan during a three-year transition period, will be led at first by a military representative before switching to a civilian.

The deal is a muted victory for protesters who had been campaigning for an immediate transition to democratic civilian rule.

Their hopes though of a bloodless revolution were shattered when Rapid Support Force (RSF) troops raided encampments and hospitals on the night of June 3, killing more than 100 people, according to protesters.

The US has called for an independent investigation into the killings but is separating that from any political settlement. That approach, however, has been criticised because the commander of the RSF, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, known as Hemeti, remains an important figure in the ruling military council.

“The fact that Hemeti remains in power is problematic. As commander of the RSF for all these years he’s implicated in serious crimes, not only in Khartoum but in Darfur” and elsewhere in the country, says Jehanne Henry, associate director in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “Until there’s accountability, the peace will not hold.”

Mr Nagy said the crackdown was “a separate issue. It’s very important for us not to get into [accusing] this person, that person. We have to focus on the outcome because that’s the most important thing for Sudan”.

Gulf allies, who have provided funding and support to Lt Gen Hamdan and the RSF, have also backed the deal, Mr Nagy said, while money from Saudi Arabia that used to go to the RSF would now back the transition. RSF forces have fought as ground troops for the Saudi-led coalition in their war against the Houthis in Yemen.

But Mr Nagy admitted the deal could still fall apart. He said there were fears that supporters of Mr Bashir could try to restore the old regime to power or that an unstable Sudan could allow radical groups to flourish. The return of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organisation with links across the Arab world that briefly held power in Egypt is 2012, was “definitely is a concern”, he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019. All rights reserved.

Get alerts on Sudan when a new story is published at FT.com

https://www.ft.com/content/19515fe0-a303-11e9-a282-2df48f366f7

Sudan's ruling militia says it's survived coup attempt

TOP general says plotters were trying to disrupt recent truce between army and protesters. “Officers and soldiers from the army and national intelligence and security service, some of them retired, were trying to carry out a coup,” Gen Jamal Omar of the ruling military council said in a statement broadcast live on state television. 

“The regular forces were able to foil the attempt.”  He did not say when the attempt was made.

Full story:  The Guardian UK by AFP in Khartoum, Thu 11 Jul 2019 23.04 BST

Last modified on Thu 11 Jul 2019 23.27 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/sudans-ruling-military-council-reports-it-has-survived-coup-attempt

Sudan’s ‘revolution’ was a military coup in disguise

Opinion piece from Middle East Monitor.com

By KHALIL CHARLES @khalilcharles

Published: July 4, 2019

Title: Sudan's 'revolution' was a military coup in disguise

Photo: Sudan's ousted President Omar Al-Bashir in Khartoum on 28 February 2019 [ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images]

According to well-informed sources, on the night of 22 February this year, as the invited guests in Sudan’s presidential palace gardens and television crews waited for the President to arrive and address the nation, the country’s former head of intelligence was also waiting. 

Enraged by President Omar Al-Bashir’s words, Major General Salah Abdallah, also known as Salah Gosh, made the snap decision to do everything in his power to depose him.

Just hours before, Abdallah had agreed with the President on the three points that he would later make in his own statement to the foreign media prior to Al-Bashir’s speech: The President would step down as head of the ruling National Congress Party; he would become a national figure independent of political parties; and he would not seek re-election next year.

Abdallah’s agreement with President Al-Bashir followed weeks of protests and civil unrest calling for the end of his 30-year rule. On the night of 22 February, the political pressure within the corridors of power as well as the tension on the streets made the agreed statement the most prudent course of action. However, as Al-Bashir walked out with the aid of his customary walking stick, the atmosphere had changed. He had arrived some six hours late. The delay only increased the anticipation and tension, but when Salah Abdallah asked quietly about the delay and the outcome of the leadership meeting, sources say that, “His impatience turned to seething rage.”

It transpired that Al-Bashir had been persuaded by the leadership of the National Congress, his close family and, indeed, some elements in the Army, neither to step down as leader, nor to declare himself a national figure and, crucially, not to announce that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020. The reaction to his speech was almost universal condemnation across Sudan and in the Sudanese diaspora. According to Sudanese journalist and activist Faisal Mohammed Salih, this was “one of the worst” speeches ever heard in Sudan. “I was appearing on satellite on Sky News Arabia,” he explained, “and seconds after the speech ended that is how I described it.”

The following morning, Abdallah put the wheels in motion to unseat the President. He gave strict orders to the security services not to intervene to stop the demonstrations from going ahead, despite the announcement of a state of emergency preventing movement after midnight and prohibiting gatherings in public places. Days after Al-Bashir’s announcement, public marches and protests intensified.

Photo: Sudanese demonstrators gather to protest demanding a civilian transition government in front of military headquarters outside the army headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan on 3 May 2019 [Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency]

Abdallah then contacted his trusted confidante, Mohammed Hamdan Dalagu of the Rapid Support Forces [the former Janjaweed militias] and now Deputy President of the Transitional Military Council, as well as Taha Hussein, a Sudanese-Saudi national dismissed by Al-Bashir for siding with the Saudis against Qatar during the Gulf crisis. Hussein maintained close links with the United Arab Emirates, where the government was kept informed of Abdallah’s master plan every step of the way. The intelligence chief then met secretly with Sudanese army officers to galvanise support for the takeover.

According to the source, who spoke directly to Abdallah, he was fully aware of the level of discontent among high ranking officers. Having sought agreement to his plan he then cleared the way for protesters to change the direction of their marches towards the Army Headquarters rather than towards the palace.

All attempts to gather on the area in front of the palace had previously been repelled with great force by the security forces, but on the 6 April anniversary of the coup against former President Gaafar Numeri the crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands.

It is unclear whether or not President Al-Bashir was made aware of the full extent of the protests. However, Salah Abdallah deployed up to 15,000 security personnel among the protesters to agitate and support the protest against the President. “As ordered, I spent three nights outside the Army Headquarters calling for the fall of Al-Bashir,” said security officer Badderdeen, who doubles as a taxi driver during the day. “I only moved when I got word that the Rapid Support Forces had been given orders to break up the protests and I knew there would be bloodshed.” Indeed, Al-Bashir had ordered the streets to be cleared but Dalagu told audiences weeks later of his refusal to follow the order to kill innocent people. “In the end, Dalagu is part of the revolution,” Badderdeen added. “If it was not for him this revolution could never have happened.”

On the morning of 11 April, the fifteen bodyguards accompanying President Al-Bashir to the dawn prayer were surrounded by 90 soldiers who encircled the small mosque in Hai Al-Matar. At the end of the prayer, Al-Bashir was surrounded as he stood in the first row to the left of the Imam. Salah Abdallah’s preparations had finally paid off. Al-Bashir was led away without a struggle to the guest room of his home adjoining the Army headquarters. Eventually, he was transferred to Kober Federal Prison, along with dozens of prominent members of the ruling National Congress Party who had been arrested simultaneously that morning, where he was to be held in isolation.

The Transitional Military Council then set about the task of camouflaging its coup d’état with the euphoria of revolutionary sentiment but woefully misjudged the demands of the Sudanese people. The coup may have been successful as far as the military was concerned, but in the minds of the protesters, the revolution was never just about removing Omar Al-Bashir. His 30 years in power not only represented the worst excesses of corruption, oppression and mismanagement, but more than anything he also represented the illegitimacy of the military’s unwelcomed role in politics since Sudan’s independence in 1956. Sudan’s “revolution” was a military coup in disguise; the struggle for civilian rule continues.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

SOURCE: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190704-sudans-revolution-was-a-military-coup-in-disguise/

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Wyclef Jean writes and sings a great song for Sudan

Wyclef Jean is a Haitian rapper, musician and actor. At the age of nine, Jean emigrated to the USA with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees. Jean has won three Grammy Awards for his musical work. 

Here is Wyclef's tweet with a clip of him singing a great new song he wrote for Sudan.

Music will always be the best way I know to express myself So I wrote this song for Sudan pic.twitter.com/DhHGMWLYwu

— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) 30 June 2019

Here is a direct link to the above tweet: https://twitter.com/wyclef/status/1145327756504391681

Sudan’s TMC talks with Alliance of Freedom and Change (AFC) includes NUP, SLA-MM, SPLM-N

Article from Al-Ahram Weekly.org.eg

By HAITHAM NOURI

Published Thursday 4 Jul 2019

Title: Sudan’s message to the world

Sudan needs a government of technocrats and interest-based relationships with other countries if its political transition is to succeed, says Deputy Chairman of National Umma Party Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi from Khartoum

Photo caption: Sudan’s message to the world

Sudan’s opposition Alliance of Freedom and Change (AFC) returned to the capital Khartoum after a two-day visit to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, where its delegation held meetings with leaders of the African Union (AU) and African ambassadors “to update them on the situation in Khartoum.”

The AFC delegation comprised opposition figures Wagdi Saleh, Hassan Abdel-Ati, Monser Al-Tayed and Moetaz Saleh, in addition to Deputy Chairman of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP) Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi.

It also included Mona Arko Minawi, head of the Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minawi (SLA-MM) and Yassir Arman, deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), militarily active in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

Al-Mahdi, a physician, has been one of the “staunchest opponents” of the 30-year regime of ousted former president Omar Al-Bashir who toppled her father’s government in June 1989.

Since the onset of negotiations between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the AFC, the umbrella bloc that includes the NUP headed by Mariam’s father Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, the physician has been a member of the team negotiating with the TMC.

She did not take part in the latest round of negotiations that took place after communications were temporarily severed between the TMC and AFC, however. Sitting in her stead was Ibrahim Al-Amin.

“These negotiations are part of an attempt to break the ranks of the AFC,” Mariam Al-Mahdi told Al-Ahram Weekly in an interview from Khartoum. “But it is normal to change the members of the negotiating delegation, particularly if the talks take a long time, as is the case with Sudan.”

Like her father, she has been no stranger to jail and self-exile. But she has always preferred to stay in Khartoum to make fiery statements against Al-Bashir’s regime and take part in opposition activities over the past two decades.

With the eruption of the nationwide protests that toppled Al-Bashir on 6 April, Al-Mahdi ended her self-exile and returned from London, despite facing threats from Sudan’s security forces, according to family sources.

Al-Mahdi was not arrested when she arrived in Sudan, but she was later arrested along with her sister Rabah on charges of illegal protests. The sisters were fined, but they refused to pay.

Al-Mahdi told the Weekly that the AFC’s visit to Addis Ababa was “important. We met the chairperson of the AU Commission and a number of African ambassadors to put them in the picture about what is happening in Sudan.”

“The AU has suspended Sudan’s membership until authority is handed over to a civilian government. This is in line with AU agreements,” she said.

The AU also froze Burkina Faso’s membership following the overthrow of dictator Blaise Compaore in 2014 within the framework of the 2003 Protocol on Amendments to the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The AU had earlier granted the TMC three months to hand over power to a civilian government.

Al-Mahdi pointed to the “positive environment” in Addis Ababa that houses the headquarters of the AU Commission. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had also stepped in to mediate between the AFC and TMC, she said.

She accused the TMC of “stalling in handing over authority” to civilians. “We don’t want to end one period of authoritarian rule to be handed over to another one. We want a government of technocrats as soon as possible,” she added.

Regarding accusations made by the TMC that it was the AFC that was “stalling the negotiations,” Al-Mahdi said that “this is not true. We accepted Ethiopia’s mediation to resume the talks, albeit with conditions, such as investigating the dispersal of the sit-in [in front of the army headquarters in central Khartoum], the resumption of Internet services and freeing the detainees.”

“We suspended the successful civil disobedience out of a desire to build trust, offer our good will and show our commitment to the negotiations. The TMC has not responded to any of our demands.”

NUP head Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi had rejected the calls for a general strike and civil disobedience on the grounds that these were “escalatory measures” against the TMC, which he called a “partner in change.”

TMC Spokesperson Shamseddin Al-Kebashi said that elements from the armed forces had dispersed the sit-in “without receiving orders from general command.”

He said the army was intent on investigating their conduct and would punish them if they were found to have contravened orders.

Activists have pointed accusing fingers at the Rapid Support Forces (RDF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). The Sudan Doctors’ Union said 118 Sudanese were killed in the incident, while the Ministry of Health put the figure at 46.

Al-Mahdi avoided implicating any specific party, saying “let’s leave it to a neutral investigating committee” instead.

She stated that she was coordinating with Saudi Arabia and the UAE after she and her father had received the Riyadh and Abu Dhabi ambassadors at their house in Omdurman.

“We want to establish interest-based relationships with all the countries in the world. We don’t want relationships between rulers that are then terminated with the end of their regime. We want relationships based on clear economic and political interests and relationships that don’t change no matter how governments change,” Al-Mahdi told the Weekly.

“Sudan has plenty to offer the Arab world and Africa, primarily in the economic field. We don’t want the aid we received during Al-Bashir’s rule. We want investments that will be to the benefit of all,” she added.

“Why is it that when Ethiopia offered to mediate, no one in Sudan objected, and then their voices grew louder when it came to Sudan’s relationship with Gulf countries? The Gulf countries, Egypt and Ethiopia are our neighbours. This is a fact no one can deny,” Al-Mahdi said.

“Everybody wants to end the state of stagnation, but any hint at holding elections within nine months or [anytime soon] is refused,” she stated.

Regarding news that the TMC could ask Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi to form a civilian government, Mariam Al-Mahdi said that “this can’t take place unless there is nationwide accord from the TMC, the AFC, and all the groups in Sudan. It is a big step that can’t be taken without a consensus.”

 *A version of this article appears in print in the 4 July, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Sudan’s message to the world

SOURCE: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/337250/World/Region/Sudan’s-message-to-the-world.aspx