“Various” statements by military leaders in Sudan have raised a state of controversy and questions about the seriousness of talking about “the possibility of handing over power to civilians,” and opened the door to controversy regarding the possibility of internal differences between the “military component,” and the repercussions of this on the country that suffers from turmoil and political crises. consecutive economics.
consecutive military statements
Military commanders continued statements about “handing over power to civilians,” and there were different accounts about the “conditions and ways” needed to implement this.
The beginning was when the Vice-President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), announced, after a meeting he held with the Speaker of the Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on Friday, the agreement of the military leaders to appoint the civilian political forces as prime minister and head of the council.
The statement stated that the two military commanders reaffirmed their commitment this summer to “the military establishment’s exit from the political scene and its full return to its tasks stipulated in the constitution and the law” after the appointment of a civilian government.
A day later, Al-Taher Abu Haja, Al-Burhan’s media advisor, confirmed on Saturday that “the army will only hand over power to a government agreed upon by all Sudanese or an elected government.”
He added, “We are committed to making the government for the remainder of the transitional period a government of competencies, not subject to political disputes and agreed upon by all Sudanese,” according toSudanese media“.
He pointed out that “Sudan, its people, its land, its security and its transitional period are a trust in the neck of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan,” adding that this trust “will only be handed over to those chosen by the Sudanese people.”
Do these statements represent “a divergence of military views regarding the handover of power to civilians”?
Disagreements or divergent statements?
The director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis in Khartoum, Al-Rashid Muhammad Ibrahim, talks about a “unified” military position regarding handing over power to civilians and leaving power.
In statements to Al-Hurra website, he indicated that “the statements of the advisor to the President of the Sovereignty Council explain the ways to hand over power and do not contradict the military component’s pledge to withdraw from the political process.”
That withdrawal requires “consensus or election” because there is no other way to transfer power from “the military to the civilians,” according to Ibrahim’s hadith.
According to Ibrahim, the statements of the army commander’s advisor confirmed the process of handing over power to civilians, with some “flawed details,” as he put it.
Ibrahim points out that this defect caused the emergence of a “contrast,” expecting the issuance of a “clarification that removes the state of controversy in which some see a contradiction between the statements of the army chief and the deputy head of the Sovereign Council.”
But Ibrahim at the same time admits that there is a “disparity” between some components of the security system in “dealing with the opposition and the civil forces.”
Mamoun Farouk, the leader of the Forces for Freedom and Change in Sudan, agrees with this, pointing to “some divergence” in views within the military component, but confirms that the matter “does not reach the stage of disagreement.”
Speaking to Al-Hurra, he confirmed that there are no “disagreements between the Rapid Support Forces, led by Daglo, and the armed forces.”
The civilian forces agreed with the “military component as a whole” to hand over power within the framework of the process of “democratic transition and building a civil state in Sudan”, and the army would devote itself to its other tasks, according to Farouk’s speech.
According to Farouk, some “parties” believe that the process of handing over power to civilians “harms their interests,” so they are trying to portray the existence of “disagreements within the military component,” as he put it.
However, the political secretary of the Sudanese People’s Congress Party, Abdel Wahab Ahmed Saad, disagrees with the two previous opinions, stressing that there is “no discrepancy, contradiction or difference in the statements of the leaders of the military component.”
In statements to Al-Hurra website, he spoke about the use of “vague language” by the parties to the military component that revolves around “one ark” in “a maneuver aimed at not handing over power to the civilian component.”
Is power handed over to civilians?
Since last October 25, Sudan has witnessed unrest after Al-Burhan led a “military coup”, during which he overthrew the main civilian bloc in power.
Since then, the near-weekly anti-coup protests, a mounting economic crisis and increased ethnic clashes in Sudan’s hinterland have exacerbated the unrest, according to AFP.
In July, Al-Burhan pledged to “step down and allow the Sudanese political forces to agree on a civilian government”, but civilian leaders considered this step a “trick”.
In his interview with Al-Hurra, the Political Secretary of the Sudanese People’s Congress agreed on this theory, pointing out that the military component did not set a “specific timetable for handing over power” and did not clarify “what is meant by civilian forces” in light of the multiplicity of parties, parties and political forces inside Sudan.
He believes that “the military will continue to rule and will not hand over power to the civilian forces.”
But Al-Rashid Muhammad Ibrahim opposes this, and confirms that “the military component will hand over power to civilians” after “the political forces and parties agree between them”, with the exception of the “National Conference”.
The National Congress, the ruling party in Sudan during the era of Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled by popular protests in 2019.
dispersed civilian forces?
Abdel-Wahhab Ahmed Saad believes that the state of “dispersion, fragmentation and incompatibility” experienced by the civilian forces “helps the continuation of the military component in power.”
But Mamoun Farouk rejects this “characterization”, speaking of “civil forces that include different parties and currents with different views,” but they are “compatible with regard to the process of handover and democratic transition.”
At the same time, Farouk hopes that the military component will be “serious and support the democratic transition and hand over power to civilians,” adding, “We are already working to achieve this.”
He talked about “some obstacles that may face the process of handing over power,” but “civilian forces, in cooperation with the military component, are able to overcome this to bring Sudan to safety.”
In a related context, Ibrahim spoke about the “necessity of consensus between civil forces”, to determine the mechanism for selecting the cabinet, how to complete power structures, and determine the steps for the process of handing over power to a “non-partisan government of competencies.”
This process will be “difficult, but not impossible, and represents a safe exit for the country,” according to Ibrahim.
Sudan, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, is still mired in political and economic stagnation, the inflation rate is approaching 200 percent per month, the currency is constantly declining, and the price of bread has risen tenfold since the “coup”.
A third of Sudanese need humanitarian aid, and the political crisis in Khartoum continues to create a vacuum in state authority and contribute to instability in the rest of the country, according toUnited nations“.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Volker Peretz, warned of the continued deterioration of the general situation in the country “unless a political solution is found to restore a civilian, credible government, which can re-establish state authority throughout the country and create conditions for the resumption of international financial support, Including debt relief.