SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Bloomberg - Sudan Coup Leaders Tighten Grip With Jobs for Loyalists, Arrests

8/11/2021: Bloomberg - Sudan Coup Leaders Tighten Grip With Jobs for Loyalists, Arrests, by  Simon Marks and Mohammed Alamin

Bloomberg report that Sudan’s military tightened its grip on state institutions and arrested hundreds of opponents, dampening hopes that Sudan’s democratic transition can be put back on track after the military coup.

Military chief Abdulfattah al-Burhan has removed: the central bank’s deputy governor, the attorney general, the leaders of [the Tamkeen] committee probing illicit financial gains made during the Omar al-Bashir regime, and the boards of state-owned companies and agricultural programmes.

 “It’s a complete military coup,” said Amir Suliman, legal programme director of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, citing the “dismissal of the Sovereign Council.. cabinet, [and] now civil servants.”

Human-rights lawyer Ali Ajab said he was aware of hundreds of arrests and efforts to appoint people with close links to al-Bashir’s regime in senior posts.

“This is a counter-revolution,” said Sara Abdelgalil, of Governance Programming Overseas, an organisation promoting Sudan’s democratic transition. 

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Bashir’s NCP returns to power in Sudan after recent coup: PCP

8/11/2021: Sudan Tribune - Bashir’s NCP returns to power in Sudan after recent coup: PCP

Sudan Tribune report that the Islamist Popular Congress Party (PCP), formerly part of Omar al-Bashir’s ousted government, warned against the return of al-Bashir’s dissolved National Congress Party (NCP) to power, saying they seek to take advantage of the military coup.

The PCP’s acting Secretary-General Party, Mohamed Badr al-Din, said that the NCP is trying to take control of the state apparatus again.

“The brothers in the NCP must go back and wait until the elections. Also, they have to engage in self-evaluation as we did and explain to the Sudanese people the mistakes they have committed,” Badr al-Din said.

Immediately after the coup, state governors, undersecretaries in the federal ministries, banks and public agencies directors were sacked and replaced by people affiliated to the NCP.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Sudan coup chief says he won’t seek office after 2023 vote

8/11/2021: AP - Sudan coup chief says he won’t seek office after 2023 vote

AP report that Sudanese army chief Abdulfattah al-Burhan promised that he will not hold a government position after planned elections in July 2023, and that the military will not stop “any political activity as long as it is peaceful” and within the boundaries of the 2019 constitutional declaration.

His announcement does not preclude other top generals from shedding their military titles and becoming candidates. AP note.

Al-Burhan maintained the military was compelled to take over because of quarrels between political parties that he claimed could lead to civil war,

Meanwhile, Rapid Support Forces commander Himedti said the military seized power to “correct the course of the people’s revolution” and achieve stability, accusing a “handful” of political parties in the government of monopolising power and neglecting the people’s interests.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Sudan internet cuts complicate civil disobedience campaign against coup

8/11/2021: Reuters - Sudan internet cuts complicate civil disobedience campaign against coup

Reuters report that local "resistance committees" and the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which led demonstrations in the uprising that toppled then-president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, launched two days of civil disobedience and strikes in protest against the military coup, though participation appeared to be limited by continuing interruptions to internet and phone connections.

A number of people did not know about the call for civil disobedience because of the internet cut," said one resident in central Khartoum who asked not to be named. Internet services have been badly disrupted since the Oct. 25 coup, and phone coverage remains patchy.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Communists quit Sudan’s FFC ruling alliance

8/11/2020: Sudan Tribune - Communists quit Sudan’s FFC ruling alliance

 Sudan Tribune report that the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) announced its withdrawal from the ruling Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), accusing FFC leaders of plotting against the revolution.

 SCP accused some FFC groups of concluding “secret and suspicious deals” inside and outside the country, adding that they are leading the "coalition towards a coup against the revolution and endorsing policies that contravene the agreed charters and declarations."

 The SCP had recently struggled to dissuade Hamdok’s government from implementing economic reforms including the removal of fuel subsidies, alongside rejecting the Juba peace agreement which it said empowered rebels “who are perceived as potential allies of the military component of the Sovereign Council.”

 On the other hand, the FFC suspects the SCP of working to dismantle the FFC in order to control the Sudanese Professional Association, with the Resistance Committees warning against such a strategy as “it would divide the civilians.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Exclusive: Sudan needs up to $5 billion in budget support to prevent collapse

8/11/19: Reuters - Exclusive: Sudan needs up to $5 billion in budget support to prevent collapse, by Khalid Abdelaziz, Ulf Laessing, Michael Georgy

 In a Reuters exclusive Sudanese finance minister Ibrahim Elbadawi detailed Sudan’s reform plans, saying that Sudan needs $5 billion in budget support to avert economic collapse.

 Elbadawi said that Sudan has only enough foreign currency reserves to fund imports for a few weeks, with Sudan needing to $2 billion in development funding along with a hoped-for $2 billion from Arab development funds.

 Elbadawi said that the reform plans will include public salaries being raised by as much as 100% by April 2020, and by the second half of 2020, a social support network would be set up to allow the lifting of subsidies, with donor funding used to collect data to allow cash transfers for the needy.

 Elbadawi also said that Sudan wants to produce bread based on sorghum, a local cereal, to import less wheat, with a spread between the official and black markets ended by June 2020.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - SLM’s al-Nur welcomes Hamdok’s pledge to hand al-Bashir over to the ICC

8/11/19: Sudan Tribune - SLM’s al-Nur welcomes Hamdok’s pledge to hand al-Bashir over to the ICC

 Sudan Tribune reports that the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLM/AW) welcomed pledges made by the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to hand over the former president Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

 Al-Nur underscored the need to hold accountable others involved in war-crimes committed in Dafur, noting that over 300,000 civilians were killed during the counter-insurgency campaign carried out by al-Bashir’s regime and its allied militias.

 "Only trying Omar al Bashir, is an insult and offence to the dignity of the Sudanese people that will not be tolerated," Al Nur said.