Feud between groups in Sudan's government creates tense climate
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – A tense political atmosphere reigns in the Sudan at present, as numerous feuds are eclipsing the vision about what is hoped would lead the country to general elections in 2023.
On the one hand the two main sides to the hybrid government that brought together the army and the political parties in the Sovereign Transitional Council, or the collective presidency, have been at loggerhead since the foiled coup attempt on 21 September.
The civilians overtly accused military elements of nurturing the enterprise and the military on the other hand are putting it bluntly that they are not happy with the way the cabinet is running the government and sidelining some elements the army considers important within the political life of the country.
“The current feud is not military versus civilians, but rather a conflict between those military and civilians who believe in the democratic transformation versus those seeking to cut the road before the two of them. Thus the unity of the revolutionary forces is the only guarantor for safeguarding the transition against all threats that might stand on its way,” the Prime Minister, Abdullah Hamdouk, argued last Sunday when commenting on the foiled coup.
But the President of the Sovereign Council, Lt. Gen. Abdul Fatah Al Burhan, who has failed to openly and clearly denounce the coup attempt, has told a gathering of senior army officers that they should work to bring in all political forces and avoid a monopoly of power, lest they lead to such a situation.
“We are telling them (the cabinet members and the political forces behind them) to work for unifying the ranks, ranks of all Sudanese forces... We want the sons of the nation to unite at this stage… so that our country moves forward, moves forward in peace and in security, transitions in security…not a falsified transition that is controlled and monopolised by one specific group,” he underlined.
And from the date these statements were made, the cabinet, which includes military in the persons of the Minister of Defence and the Minister of the Interior, has not met. Not only that, but the hybrid Sovereign Council, which is half military half civilian, has also not met.
Furthermore, the civilian ministers within the cabinet have started openly and aggressively attacking senior army members of the Council, forcing the second strongest military man in the Council, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, to declare that he would not sit at the same table with people who debase them as military, until they rendered an open apology.
On the other hand the political parties that formed the cabinet are now witnessing a serious split, though they belittle it as trivial.
On Saturday a group of political forces, including the powerful Justice and Equality Movement of former Darfur rebel movement that fought ousted President Omar Bashir for years and which was able to even infiltrate into the national capital, met in Khartoum and said they were not happy with what was happening in the cabinet, a reference to the leftist inclination of most elements of the cabinet.
However they put it mildly saying that they want more representation, establishment of the supreme court, naming of a transitional legislature, reinstating thousands of employees purged by a commission set by the government as part of a drive to remove all elements that worked with the past regime or which are believed to be dragging their feet in implanting policies of the government.
Although the gathering was not a serious threat to the government of Prime Minister Hamdouk the fact that they were once part of his coalition hurts.
The Darfur people have a saying that “locust in your underwear will not hurt you, but its mere presence there is not sweet”.
Until some national figures are able to mend fences between the military and civilians and to return water to its main course, the situation remains volatile and tense.
-0- PANA MO/MA 3Oct2021
