SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: AP – Sudan strongman is seen as an insider with powerful allies
AP provides insights on military coup leader Abdulfattah al-Burhan, who has powerful allies “including Gulf nations and feared [Rapid Support Forces paramilitary commander Himedti], and appears intent on keeping the military firmly in control.”
Al-Burhan’s Darfur record was “relatively clean” and he was a “rare non-Islamist among the top generals during [former dictator Omar] al-Bashir’s military-Islamist regime.”
On al-Burhan’s Egyptian and Gulf allies, the Atlantic Council’s Cameron Hudson suggested “a general preference for a strong military leader who is very transactional. That fits Gulf interests more than a democratic government”.
Despite al-Burhan’s promises that the military will hand over power following the July 2023 elections, Suliman Baldo of the Sentry suggests that al-Burhan and Himedti
are both intent on remaining free from civilian oversight and are “concerned about being held accountable for atrocity crimes committed under their command” — in Darfur and in the 2019 sit-in killings and rapes.