SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Reuters - Analysis: Under military's watch, Sudan's former ruling party making a comeback

22/4/2022: Reuters - Analysis: Under military's watch, Sudan's former ruling party making a comeback, by Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir

Amid Sudanese fears that Islamists could soon be back in influential positions and potentially running in elections, Reuters report that the coup regime is “unofficially” rehabilitating the Islamist National Congress Party (NCP) that ruled Sudan under former dictator Omar al-Bashir as a way to “assemble a civilian political base in an attempt to build a case for badly-needed foreign financial support suspended after the coup.”

With scores of NCP Islamists freed from jail and reinstated into institutions including: the central bank, judiciary, public prosecutor, prime minister's office, foreign ministry and state media – director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker Suliman Baldo said “bringing back the Islamists could stoke political tension and has already contributed to bureaucratic paralysis.”

Nasredeen Abdulbari, justice minister in the pre-coup transitional government, said the military was “ambivalent” towards Islamists and did little to weed them out from the security services.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Sudan Tribune – How the military harnessed the African Union in the UNITAMS process to legitimize the coup

22/4/2022: Sudan Tribune  – How the military harnessed the African Union in the UNITAMS process to legitimize the coup, by Khalid Mukhtar Salim

Khalid Mukhtar Salim calls for the international community to establish an international panel including respected pro-democracy figures to prevent the African Union’s leadership from “consolidating” the military coup.

Salim argues that the AU “hijacked” the UN’s political process for Sudan’s transition to turn it into “a toothless local process with cosmetic engagement”, citing the removal of Sudan’s portfolio from the African Union Peace and Security Council which includes African leaders with “great” experience of pro-democracy interventions.

Salim suggests that a Sudanese military regime serves the presidential ambitions of Moussa Faki, the chair of the AU Commission and seasoned Chadian politician, who “knows perfectly well that since Chad’s independence, no president has come to power without Khartoum’s support,” with a democratic civilian Sudan is unlikely to interfere in neighbouring affairs.

Faki’s chief of staff, Mohamed El-Hacen Lebatt, is “not pro-democracy,” given his experience as foreign minister in a Mauritanian coup regime.  

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Will the military or the people lead Sudan?

22/4/19: Sudan Tribune – Will the military or the people lead Sudan?, by Ahmed Soliman

 Ahmed Soliman, a researcher for the Africa programme at Chatham House, calls for Sudan's transitional military council (TMC), the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC), and the international community to  "think beyond short-term power gains," and compromise in the interests of inclusive democracy.

 Soliman argues that co-ordinated support from Sudan's international partners will be critical in addressing the economic crisis and political reformation. However, contrasting Middle-East positions on the Muslim Brotherhood could leave Sudan in a “regional tug-of-war," the African Union's chair (Egypt) supports the military coup despite the AU condemning it, and western diplomats have met with TMC officials, despite the EU not recognising it.

 Arguing that the DFC is yet to establish a leadership structure and policy position, Soliman suggests a four-pronged interim transitional civilian government, which also features a military council with elements of the old regime removed, also warning it against alienating Islamists in opposition.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Associated Press - Darfur justice could prove elusive despite al-Bashir's fall

22/4/19: Associated Press – Darfur justice could prove elusive despite al-Bashir’s fall, by Fay Abuelgasim and Joseph Krauss

Fay Abuelgasim and Joseph Krauss highlight how demands for Omar Al Bashir to face justice for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are complicated by Sudan's democratisation process.

 Sudan expert Alex de Waal argued that the ICC case "delayed Sudanese democratisation by 10 years because Bashir could not safely step-down, and it shouldn't do any further damage to Sudanese democratisation."

 Abuelgasim and Krauss note that members of the transitional military council complicit in the war crimes "may conclude, like al-Bashir, that their only way of avoiding [ICC] detention... is to cling to power."

 Thus, two Sudanese activists, Amal Al Zein and a senior Sudanese Professionals Association member Mohammed Al Assam, are both keen for Al Bashir to be tried in Sudan.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Washington Post - Sudan's Omar al-Bashir jailed these protesters. They're back on the street with new demands.

22/4/19: Washington Post - Sudan's Omar al-Bashir jailed these protesters. They're back on the street with new demands., by Max Bearak

 In Max Bearak's feature piece, two recently released Sudanese political prisoners, Amani Hamid of the Sudanese Communist party and Bakri Gibril, a lawyer and activist, “recounted their...mistreatment as a way of describing repression under [Omar Al] Bashir - something they fear could play out again if the current military transitional government is left in control.” 

 Gibril was held in Shendi prison's “Refrigerator,” where prisoners have no blankets and the air conditioning is constantly on full-blast, "[making] it hard to have thoughts."

 Guards falsely told Gibril and Hamid that the protests had failed, but Gibril knew it was a lie because more prisoners were coming in. Both do not believe that Al Bashir is in prison.

 Gibril said that “compromise now means letting history repeat itself,” with Hamid labelling the military-led group replacing Al Bashir as “just another coup,” and calling for the continuation of peaceful protests.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - Sudanese military issue protest warning

22/4/19: Multiple sources – Sudanese military issue protest warning

• BBC

• Reuters

Sudan's military government has told protesters to take down their road blocks in the capital, Khartoum. Demonstrators have been manning barricades leading to the military HQ, which has been the focus of the protests that helped lead to the ousting of President Omar Al Bashir.

 The military says it is committed to handing over power and will consider a joint military-civilian council, but it insisted that it was responsible for security in the country.