Understanding the Current Sudanese Revolution and its Background

By: Mahmoud E. Yousuf

Understanding the current revolution in Sudan would be difficult without grasping some backgrounds which coined and shaped the current upraising. Sudan was among the first African countries to gain independence from the United Kingdom on 1/1/1956, the political leaders at that time were shaped by the consequences of events in 1924, so they concentrated more on dealing with Arab ideologies and aspirations more than the African one, and all official policies were aimed at strengthening that process by Arabization and Islamization of the country, although according to 1955/56 census, the Africans represents 58% of the population and Arabs and those who claimed to be Arabs were less than 39 % of the population and foreigners 3% [1, 2], and there were 597 tribe in Sudan [2]
The current political map of Sudan was shaped when Muhammad Ali Bash, the Egyptian Ruler sent his son Ismaeel Basha to get Men, Gold and Ostrich feathers from Sudan in 1821 [3]; that invasion started the Turkeys rule in Sudan until it was defeated by the first Nationalist Muhammad Ahmad Almahadi, who led his revolution in 1881 until he entered Khartoum on January 15, 1885 and defeated the British Governor of Sudan General Gordon Pasha [4].
After 17 years of national ruling, the Anglo-Egyptian forces conquered Sudan on September 2, 1898, then joined Darfur to Sudan in 1917 after defeating its ruler Sultan Ali Dinar who backed the Outman Khalifa and the German at the start of the first world war in 1914, declaring himself pro-Turkish and making contact with them via the Senussi of Libya [5].
During the Turkish and Mahdist the slave trade flourished, and although the British claimed to invade Sudan to stop it, unfortunately that didn’t happened, and as Assistant director of intelligence in the Sudan between 1915 to 1926 Mr. C. A. Willis commented that “The whole social system of the northern Sudan grew to depend on the possession of salves without whom no property could be developed or family maintained” [6], showing the extent of collaboration between the British authorities in Sudan and the leading benefices from the existence of slave trade in Sudan, the Ali Mergani and Abdurrahman Almahadi, who led great projects and exploiting their religious followers in these agriculture projects, until 1926 when slave trade was officially abolished, regardless of opposition from these leaders who with others wrote a letter objecting that process, but the abolished act stipulated that, slaves were to be given freedom papers when they reported to the police [6], that blurred mockery process kept slavery existence for long time and transformed the society into three levels of societies based on how brightness one’s skin is, which allowed the existence of a road in the center of Khartoum named after the famous slave merchant Zubair Basha!
During that period, liberated ex-slaves and other citizens were recruited in different construction works after occupation, such as government offices, railroads, roads, Senar Dam, bridges, etc. .. Others joined the Army, after the first world war in 1914-19, some retired officers, clacks, workers and merchants gained great awareness towards themselves and the surrounding societies, which reflected in the formation of the United Tribes Society in 1921 by Ali Abdu al-Latif, the second Sudanese Nationalist (his mother was a Dinka and the father, a Nuba), representing the political wing which later participated in the formation of the White Flag League, led by him and Obied Haj Alamin (from Galien tribe in north) [6].
Between 1918 and 1924 there were two groups contesting the representation of Sudanese people in negotiating with the British, the White Flag League led by an African Ali Abdu al-Latif and coalition of sectarian/religious/traditional leaders led by Ali al-Mergani, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, and Sharif Yousif al-Hindi who were taken by British to London in 1919 to congratulate King George the Fifth and Britain Emperies over victory in first World War [3], in their meeting the son of great first Nationalist Al-Mahdi, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi gave the sward of his father to King George V, who accepted it, but returned it swiftly back to him, “to keep in defense of the Sudan and the Empire forever!” [7] In Sudan, the debates between the two groups concentrated on the definition and destiny of the country, between building the Sudanese identity and national hood contrary to embracing the Arab identity and become part of the large Arab identity.
Within that internal confrontations which took many dimensions, several external events took place, which shaped their destiny, fist of that the revolution by Ahmad Orabi in Egypt in 1919, then the killing of the governor general of Sudan and Army Commander, Sir Lee Stack in Cairo on November 19, 1924, immediately the British ordered Egyptian army out of Sudan, Sudanese battalion led by Abd al-Fadil al-Maz (his father from Nuier in South Sudan, who headed Sudanese force in Mexico in 1865 and promoted to Brigade) mutinied refusing that order, in collaboration with Egyptian troops who later let them down, they fought till al-Maz was killed [7, 8]
The British for unknown reasons, although we think as a reward for the Arabs leaders [9], they accused the White Flag League led by Ali Abdu al-Latif as behind that mutiny and they arrested all leaders of the society, then they disbanded the army which was dominated by Africans who were uprooted from their tribes and educated and developed in different cities of Khartoum, Cairo, Istanbul, Paris and Mexico City, for more than four generations [6, 7, 8], the British thought they present a threats to its rule, disbanding them and refused to allow them going back to their tribal base and left them in different cities of Sudan without jobs [6], the only interpretation for that is a mass punishment by the British, even the Sudanese soldiers (Nubians) in Kenya were not allowed to return to Sudan due to that mutiny.
Until 1924 many Sudanese Africans were in schools, even some graduated as Doctors in 1920s but after losing resources, their live hood deteriorated, they were unable to send their children to school, and their representations in society dropped, although they tried to organize themselves in 1947 and 1953. They were countered by strong policies from northern political parties, while lacking resources to counter [6].
For Southern Sudan, in 1947 and before the independence, the British brought some Southern clacks and tribal leaders with northern politicians in a conference in Juba, to discuss the future relation of the country, with three options of independence or be part of East African Countries or remain in Sudan, the Southern leaders agreed to remain under united Sudan, but that was conditioned by special Federal statutes. In December 1955 the parliament agreed to discuss it first in its new session after independence giving South Sudan federal system of governance, which was not honored [1]. Before that, the Southern troops mutinied on 15 August 1955 [10], leading to the first war which continued till October 21, 1964 and the success of the October revolution to topple the military government of General Ibrahim Aboud. The main issue behind it was the peaceful resolution of Southern conflict, so a round Table conference was held [1]. Its resolution was opposed by both AL Sadiq Almahadi and Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi [11], the later a lecturer in the University of Khartoum and the leader of Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who was elected chairman in 1959 after receiving his PhD from Sorbonne in France and MS from Oxford, both opposed the recommendation of the conference claiming Sudan can’t be ruled or deputized by non-Muslim [11]. They worked to undermine the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), disbanded it, which reacted by taking power on May 25, 1969 under Jaffar Mohamed Numeri, who got rid of the SCP in 1970 and killed its leade rs in 1971. Although he resolved Southern conflict in March 1972, he breached the agreement in March 1983 by dividing South Sudan Region into three states, thus reducing its authority and implemented Sharia laws in September that year after bringing both AL Sadiq Almahadi and Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi to his government in 1978 [12].
On May 16, 1983 the Sudanese People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was formed headed by Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who transformed the cause from liberation of South Sudan to the liberation of the whole Sudan, the call was resonated by Nuba people in central Sudan, people from Funj, some from Darfur and few from Northern Sudan, the war continued and escalated until 1985 when an uprising against Jaffar Mohamed Numeri succeeded and toppled him, then General Abdulrahman Soar Aldahab took power, and held election after one year, and AL Sadiq Almahadi won the elections, after two years both his partner in government Mohamed Osman Al Mergani and Dr. John Garang de Mabior reached a peace agreement in Addis Ababa on September 1988, which was opposed by his partner AL Sadiq Almahadi, who formed an “Islamic trend cabinet” with Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi at the end of 1988, at that time Libyans were supporting the Arab Alliance in Darfur, and Turabi silenced his NIF’ members criticizing the Libyan [13]. After pressure by trade union, political parties and military, the prime minister AL Sadiq Almahadi resorted to form a coalition with Mohamed Osman Al Mergani and accepted the 1988 peace agreement. The peace agreement was supposed to be signed by the Sudanese government and SPLM on July 4, 1989, then there was a plans to hold a constitutional conference in Khartoum in September 1989; when Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi who transformed his Muslim Brother hood in July 1985 into the National Islamic Front (NIF) made a coup on 30 July, 1989 and installed Brigadier Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir president as a camouflage. He then declared religious war against SPLM/A with worst treatments for SPLM/A Muslims, they succeeded in mobilizing many factors internally and externally, where they help to topple the government of Mengistu Hailemariam in Ethiopia. They exploited the division within SPLA led by Dr. Reik Machar and Dr. Lam Akol in August 1991, and captured many towns from SPLA until 1995 when SPLA started countering these attacks. The split in SPLA occurred during a time when a force was marching to Darfur in August 24, 1991 [14], lacking troops in Darfur, al-Bashir government mobilized Arab tribes, although mobilization and armament of Arab tribes was first started by then Prime minister AL Sadiq Almahadi, and during his government in 1988, some Arabs leaders from Darfur wrote a letter to him under the name of “the Arab alliance” headed by Abdalla Masar, they claimed they brought enlightenment to the region and they represent 70% of population and they must be given more than 50% of constitutional post in the region and that of the region nationally [15]. They were condemned publicly and in the parliament; but when SPLA went to Darfur, President Bashir armed Arab tribes in 1992 to fight the SPLA force in each tribal area, according to the then governor of Darfur, Altyeb Ibrahim Mahamad Khaier, the Arabs tribes played the main roll in suppressing Daud’s movement. He said that the authority gave Arab tribes hundred thousand pieces of weapons (100,000) [16], and SPLA regardless of winning 38 battles, due to lack of logistical support, withdrew its forces from Darfur to South Sudan through Central Africa Republic, while the deputy commander of the force Eng. Daud Yahya Bolad who was in communication with a friend, was betrayed and handed over to the government. Despite the fact that he was the third in command in NIF hierarchy before he defected to SPLA, as an African defector, he was executed mercilessly by his university colleague Altyeb Ibrahim Mahamad Khaier [14]. That campaign brought the Arab alliance of 1988 closer to the regime.
In 1992 immediately after the takeover of the country by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1989, a coalition of fourteen opposition parties, organizations and personalities was formed under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and it launched a base in Eastern Sudan in 1995, headed by the New Sudan Brigade (NSB) as the northern wing of SPLA, other forces were Umma Party, Democratic Party, Democratic Alliance and the Federal Party [14], but it was greatly hindered when AL Sadiq Almahadi fled Sudan in December 1996, and returned back to Sudan in November 1999, but the NDA continued fighting till 2004, it succeeded in achieving many political goals which helped to build the character of Dr. John Garang as the third Sudanese Nationalist leader.
In the same year,1992 after the failed attempt by SPLA to have its presence in Darfur, Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi stated that “African tribes are not trustworthy in spreading Islam and they should be replaced by Arab tribes in the border areas,” hence the government and the Arab alliance met in the objective of break up and eliminating Africans elements and to control their land and power, it is mentioned in the Sudanese comprehensive national strategic plan of 1992-2002 first volume, under the strategic of population: Redistribution of population in a way that can achieve developments and strengthening the national security [16] which seem to be planned by both the regime and the Arab Alliance, thus in 1993 the government started a policy of settling Arab tribes from Chad, Mali and Niger in Darfur, signaling the start of replacing African tribes with Arabs from across the borders which fueled the situations at local areas, atrocities were carried out against African tribes, but its executions were totally blackout by the center although it’s secret plan was discovered [17], and in 1999 Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi who was the Speaker of the Parliament decided to introduce multipartism, but opposed by a group of Northern members of his own NIF, led by his deputy Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and President Omer al-Bashir, who thought Africans would dominate through their majority. That division took place along racial line, although some northerners continued to be loyal to Dr. Hassan Abdalla Turabi. Al-Bashir dismissed the parliament to weaken Dr. Turabi’s power and then arrested him, Dr. Turabi quitted the National Congress Party (NCP) and formed the Popular Congress Party (PCP) and both log on new phase of bitter fighting. In 2000, the war intensified in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Eastern Sudan, where NSB (SPLA) forces captured the town of Kasala in December 2000, fighting in five different fronts, the government signed the Machakos Protocol on July 20, 2002, by Gazi Salah Al-Dina Alatabani, head of Sudanese delegation, who responded to some Sudanese in Nairobi when they inquired why Southerners were being given self-determination, he said “Isn’t it better to sign Machakos protocol rather than wait for Darfur to come up?” [12].
During that period arrangements were taking place in Darfur secretly, which marked the start of the genocide, which only started to emerged when Darfur Liberation Front (DLF) was established in March 2003 headed by Abdulwaheed Mohamed Nur, which was renamed to Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) headed by Abdelwahid Mahamad Nur and Commanded by Abdalla Abaker, in early 2004 Mani Arko Manawi was elected the Secretary General then followed two months later by Justice and Equality Movement/Army (JEM/A) headed by Dr. Khalil Ibrahim, in reactions to atrocities by Arab tribes in Darfur, both movements dealt fatal blows to the Sudanese government [14]. Feeling the threats from these fronts, some of the government delegation during Nanoki negotiations in May 2003, made a secret approach, after which, Security Arrangement was signed at Naivasha, Kenya on September 25, 2003, wealth sharing on January 2004, power sharing on May 26, 2004, Resolution of Abyei Conflict on May 26, 2004 and the Resolution of the Conflict in South Kordofan and Bl ue Nile States on May 26, 2004, and finally the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in Nairobi, on January 10, 2005 [12].
The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood (SMB), was nicknamed Khizan (cup) because they said Islam is a sea and they are Khizan (cup) which was used to drink from that sea. This movement deliberated about the final solution for the type of government in regards to the future ruling system in Sudan if there was a possibility of Sudan to be governed by a Christian, and they resorted to the decision of separating southern Sudan rather than accepting such reality (In reality it was about ethnicity). For SPLM, Dr. John Garang de Mabior was the Champion of the New Sudan vision, the vision which was based on the restoration of the shattered dreams of the nationalists Sudanese whose aim was to build the country based on nationhood, rather than the tribal/ethnicity reality of Sudanese society agitated by the sectarian leaders and backed by the British in 1924, that developed into regulated type of racial Apartheid not easily understood by external observers. Unfortunately, that dream also shattered by the sudden death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior on the evening of July 30, 2005, while returning from Entebbe to New Site in South Sudan. For the new president of SPLM, although he was deputy to Garang, when he took over, he started preparing the population for the referendum to establish the Republic of South Sudan. On the other hand the Americans, Europeans and African countries worked very hard to established peace in Darfur by all means, so it didn’t spoil the process for South Sudan; which resulted in hastily signing of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) for the Resolution of the Sudanese Conflict in Darfur on July 5, 2005, between the government of Sudan and SLM of Arko Mini Manai [14], and al-Bashir was rewarded.
The main goals of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of signing both agreements were to weaken Darfurian Movements, particularly the two which refused to sign Abuja agreement. Although JEM by Dr. Khalil managed to enter Omdurman in May 2008, after only three years both JEM and SLM disintegrated into several movements, and Omer al-Bashir after exploiting the tribal leader Musa Hilal, who was removed from prison in 2002 and financed to establish the Janjaweed Militant group which carried part of the genocide in Darfur between 2002 and 2006 after which it was transformed into the Forces of Boarder Guards (FBG), when al-Bashir realized Hilal was ambitious and could make an alliance with rebels, he funded Mohamed Hamdan Doglo Hemiti, who is the cousin to Hilal with money and heavy weapons supplied and formed the Rapid Support Force (RSF), to replace Hilal to fight both the Darfurian movements and later the SPLA North in Nuba Mountains, and through networks of spies and external intelligence Hemedti succeeded in Darfur, particularly after the independence of South Sudan, but failed in Nuba Mountains.
During the interim period between 2005-2011, while implementing the CPA, the NCP griped power in Northern Sudan and issued several laws that contradicted the interim constitution, but its partner the SPLM worked mainly preparing for the Big Day and although the general elections could have been the long waited opportunity for peaceful regime change in Sudan but SPLM accepted the request of its candidate Yasir Arman to withdraw his nomination, throwing the hops of millions for peaceful transformation and gaining their dignity, particularly the marginalized people of Nuba Mountains, Darfur and Blue Nile, many suspected foul [18]; hence with that easiness for al-Bashir to win the elections, the referendum was in such pattern and South Sudan gain independence and left Sudan in the hands of totalitarian merciless autocratic authority although we predicted this since 2006 [12], where after a month al-Bashir declared in Kasala that “After South Sudan seceded, Sudan is a full Arab culture and Islamic religion,” which means he doesn’t recognized the existence of Nuba, Funj and Darfurians, leave alone others in the Northern and Eastern Sudan He felt totally free to humiliate anyone, lashing women in public, stealing public funds in a manner never witnessed in the world. The minister of energy Awag Aljaz who was a close relative to al-Bashir was recently exposed by Wikileaks he had 64 Billion Dollars in his account in Europe, while Sudan’s debts are 54 Billion Dollars. He has other accounts in Malaysia, and the total money of NCP officials in Malaysia is over 45 Billion dollars, while Sudanese people are suffering from the lack of basic needs, a Sudanese author documented these in several books among which the Khandaq (Trench) [19]. The hope of the Sudanese people for change was so great when Dr. John Garang arrived Khartoum for swearing on July 8, 2005 and received by 6-8 million, unfortunately that hope shattered with that crash on July 30, 2005.
Change seems impossible with NCP’s total grip on power, where within two years of Muslims Brotherhood (Khizan) started in 1989, they replaced the army, military intelligence, national intelligence, police, civil service with their own religious and ethnic men and women, and they formed in the first year the popular security (previously, the party security), the popular police and the Popular Defence Force (PDF) in addition to forceful recruitments of youth to fight SPLA, for example the campaign intended to capture the Nuba Mountains in 1994 consist of 34,000 individuals composed from the army, PDF, some foreigners in addition to Mujahedeen, who are old people who believed they would go to heaven if they were killed. They surrounded SPLA force of 800 at Tolashi Mountain, headed by the late Commander Mohamed Gumma Naier for a period of four months without defeating them, and finally withdrew. The recruitments for these forces in cities and rural areas were carried with great cruelties. While the government in the first year killed anyone found with hard currency in military courts lacking the minimum level of justices, and they formed secret detentions where students, teachers and trade unionists and oppositions were tortured and even killed with brutality, implementing these restrictions while they were enjoying the life, embezzling the wealth of the country selling Sudanese assets internally like Al Gezira scheme which was the greatest agriculture project in Africa, with water irrigation system designed in 1926 to flow naturally without pumping, they sold Sudan Airways, Sudan Shipping Line, Sudanese buildings in London, Geneva and many other cities, al-Bashir with his groups were described as groups who ruled the country as if they are bunch of gangsters; while doing these, they had great confidence to rule forever, as Dr. Turabi bosted in front of Arab Journalists from Muslims Brotherhood in 1992 “no military coup will succeed in Sudan, nor popular uprising or revolution will succeed,” his deputy Ali Osman once said “the roots of NCP tree are deep rooted, it’s not easily removed,” another said “we will only handle power to Jesus in his second coming!”
That’s how the Muslims Brotherhood (Khizan) were full of confidence, when a protests took place in Khartoum and Al-Ubayyed on July 30, 2011, several other small demonstrations took place until a major one broke out in Khartoum on 23 September 2013 it lasted nearly two weeks, but it was severely crashed, with nearly 300 martyrs, they were killed by elements of security using live ammunitions. The government emerged from that experience with overconfidence, but greatly divided into two camps, pro Bashir consist mainly from military men like Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh and Abdulrahim Mohammed Hussein and his opponents, composed of Ali Osman Taha, Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie and others. That division started immediately after the signing of an agreement between Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie representing the NCP government and Malik Agar Eyer the Chairman of SPLM-North on June 28, 2011. In my analysis the re ason, because al-Bashir started feeling the great mistakes he had done by allowing South Sudan to secede, and the group of Ali Osman Taha and Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie and Malik Agar were the main actors from NCP and SPLM who started the whole process from A to Z as a strategic alliance between the elites to rule Sudan. Bashir decided to punish them, as a reaction, the northern group opposed his re-election in 2020, which require a constitution change in the Parliament, at its start, the consequences of that division also lead to the war between SPLM-N and the government in Nuba Mountains in June 6, 2011, then followed in Blue Nile state on September 1, 2011 after al-Bashir refused Nafie Ali Nafie and Malik Agar above agreement. On the other hand, al-Bashir succeeded in dragging many Darfurian factions to Al-Doha Peace Agreements in 2011 (through annexes till 2018) [20], thinking this could allow him to rule forever, then on January 27, 2014 he launched the National Dialogue Conference, opened on the 10th of October 2015, as a Chairman he opened the first session of the conference at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, attended guests were Chadian President, Idriss Debi, Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, and the Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Mohamed al-Jorwan, the number of the Participants in the opening session was 92 political parties, 9 armed movements, and 74 national figures, later, according to the General Secretariat of the conference, the number reached 108 parties, 38 armed movement and 75 national figures, it is widely believed that only a very small number of the participating parties, about five, enjoy real political influence while the rest have a very weak political weight and political impact, they are either newly founded, or splinter factions of already existing parties, or created by the regime for machinations purposes, in contrast, the politically influential parties allied under the banner of Sudan Cal all boycotted the conference, besides other [21], as the conference was intended to resolve different Sudanese conflicts (the same scheme he wrecked 25 years ago), with participation of more than 116 parties including Umma party of AL Sadiq Almahadi (he later boycotted after being arrested one month for saying that the Rapid Support Force (RSF) committed human rights abuses in Darfur), while others like the Sudanese Communist party, Al Bath Party, SLM-Mini, SLM-Abdulwahid, JEM and SPLM-N refused to attend. Like different agreements by NCP, the conference ended after three years and he signed the “National Document” on October 10, 2016, which contained some amendment of the constitution, like the introduction of Prime Minster post. The majority of politicians, observers, commentators, civil society activists, youth and women groups, etc., doubt the seriousness of the governing National Congress Party (NCP), and the viability of the National Dialogue’s initiative [21]. But for the shock of everyone al-Bashir appointed his friend Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh to form the government, it became clear the reforms were just a cosmetic decoration and he was just playing the usual NCP game, with many problems facing the new government, particularly financial and the fuel which he failed to provide. On September 13, 2018 al-Bashir replaced him with Mutaz Musa, who also occupied the portfolio of finance, but while keeping most ministers of previous government, he committed several mistakes like increasing the custom rate of dollar from 6 pounds to 18 pounds, the confiscation of depositors in banks, only allowing the withdraw of 500 pounds, his polices in medicine, fuel and flour, which lead to the increase in bread price in December 2018, igniting the accumulated anger of different sectors of the population and bringing back all grievances of the Sudanese people towards the Muslims Brotherhood (Khizan), who humiliated different sectors of Sudanese societies during their thirty years of inhuman ruling, which exploded in the current revolution.
The revolution started with a demonstration against the increase in the cost of living, in Port-Sudan town in eastern Sudan on December 19, 2018, then it followed by a demonstration in the town of Atbara in Northern Sudan, then escalated on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 in Khartoum and Omdurman and Alobeid in Northern Kordofan, although demonstrations were peaceful but government reactions was so brutal, it used teargas, rubber bullets then live ammunitions. What shocked the government greatly, the demonstrations started in its northern bases, where it thought it worked very hard to alleviate its status. In order to scare the northern population from participating in the demonstration, the minister of information Mamoun Hassan announced the arrest of a cell belonging to the Darfurian rebel Abdel-Waheed Mohamed Nour the Chairman of SLM-Abdel Waheed, consisting of ten individuals with fourteen AK 47 and one thousand rounds of ammunitions and a computer with documents showing they intended to kill demonstrators, he further stated that one of them was killed when government raided their hideout in northern Khartoum [22]; while the head of the Sudanese National Intelligence (SNI) Salah Gush accused elements belonging to SLM-Abdel Waheed as the one who caused destructions and burning government properties using the demonstration as a pretext, he stated in a statement that 280 other elements of the movement were being transferred to Nairobi in Kenya after being trained in Israel. Shocked by that, neighbours and colleagues of the students announced that the ten arrested were students studying at the University of Senar, and they never left the area, they tried to fuel racial tension [23]. That’s when the slogans of youth in Port Sudan started saying, “you racist and arrogant all the country Darfur,” [24] while the other famous slogans were “You are just to fall” “The people want to topple the regime,” “Freedom peace and justice and revolution is the choice of population,” “we are not scared, we will crash the Khizan.”
Issuing that statements, the government brought more than 250 Landcruiser mounted with heavy machineguns manned by the Rapid Support Force (RSF) of Hemedti to Khartoum, and he met al-Bashir, a day later a recorded message to his troops started circulated, in which he said “Our main mission is to fight rebels, but we can’t kill civilians in legitimate demonstrators,” which gave a hint of a crack within the ruling NCP.
Since the emergence of the social media as an important means of communications, many used it to exposed al-Bashir regime, which intensified during the previous upraising in 2011/2013, but the regime increased the capability of the well-funded specialized electronics unit in the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) whose main task was to follow opposition activities, reporting them, distorting their activities and creating counter campaigns. These campaigns intensified last year, resulting in the deportation of Mohamed ‘Al Bowshi by Egyptian authority to Sudan and two other activists from Saudi Arabia, where they were detained in Sudan, that’s why many were scared at the early stages of the current revolution to expose themselves, but many posted messages of incitements in their social media pages before and after the early demonstrations, until the re-appearance of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) which although formed in 2013, but officially launched in August 2018, the association consist of mainly eight trade unions:
1. The Sudanese Teachers Committee,
2. The Central Committee of Doctors,
3. The Association of the Democratic Veterinary Doctors
4. The Democratic Coalitions of Lawyers,
5. The Alliance of Universities Lecturer,
6. The Network of Sudanese Journalists,
7. The Legitimate Sudanese Doctors Trade Union, and
8. The Initiative C ommittee to reclaim Engineer Trade Union.
Their main aims as issued in a statement in early 2019 were:
i. the immediate and unconditional end of General Omer al-Bashir’s presidency and the conclusion of his administration
ii. the formation of an interim government for four years
iii. To stop all violations and the cancelation of all laws that restricted freedoms.
Then other political parties and forces signed the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC) on January 1, 2019, in addition to SPA these are:
(1) Alliance of the National Consensus Forces
(2) Sudan call forces
(3) The Union Alliances (Opposition)
(4) The Republican Party, and several others.
These coalition was named the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC), many political parties and Trade Unions later joined it, based on the above three points by the SPA, the DFC became the vocal voices leading the demonstrations, but with SPA as a popular recognized force, which schedule weekly demonstrations. Many individuals and groups issued statements, on December 21, 2018, I issued a statement titled “The Revolution of Dignity and Liberation,” then the widely famous statement by Ambassador Ibrahim Taha Ayoub previous minister of foreign affairs in 1985/86 and six other university lecturers among them the famous Sudanese Pan-Africanist Prof. Mohamed Jalal Hashim and an engineer issued on December 25, 2018 titled “for the revolution of people not to be stolen,” and opened for anyone to sign and they created a group to follow the development of the revolution and safeguard it from stolen, the Abdin List (a list composed of intellectuals and educators) issued on December 29, 2018, the coalition of Sudanese Artists on January 6, 2019, the Nairobi Declaration (A list signed by many Sudanese who resided in Nairobi-Kenya) on January 7, 2019.
Few days after the start of the demonstration on December 19, 2018, the SPA called for a major demonstration in Khartoum on December 25, 2018, with many participants, then another for a million on Friday December 28, 2018, which set the ball rolling. Then it started to organize a schedule of weekly demonstrations. The government reactions to these demonstrations remained Sudanese with the previous position of then Vice President Ali Osman Taha in an interview on April 24, 2012 in which he referred to the war in the boarder of South Sudan saying “we will never allow a single date to be smuggled to South Sudan, the order for security forces is shot to kill” [25] this is the same man who announced on January 8, 2019, that “those who think the army will intervene are in illusion, the army will not intervene, there are shadowed battalions who are defending him (al-Bashir) with their souls,” [26] that’s when many killings by groups riding unregistered vehicles started. The demonstrations continued through February and March, and on the first of April DFC called for a demonstration of one million people. On 6 April a statement by the DFC to the General Command of the Armed Forces was delivered under the hashtag “#Sudan_Uprising,” on the early morning of April 6, 2019, when demonstrators gathered at the Army Headquarter, the SPA and its coalition declared an opened General Command sit-in, something the government never anticipated. While the demonstrators’ numbers were increasing every hour, regardless of obstacles by government securities, the protestors were not less than three million that evening. The security forces tried a night raid, but the army defended demonstrators three times, finally al-Bashir called the Rapid Support Force (RSF) to Khartoum, and he held a meeting on April 11, 2019 attended by the Chief of Staff, his deputies and the Commander of RDF Hemidty, who said later that al-Bashir told them, “As Malikia sect in Islam of Sunni, he was informed that, for the stability and peace of the nation, the president can kill third of the population, while the hardliners said he can kill fifty percent!” When they emerged from that meeting, and as part of the security council formed by al-Bashir, they held a meeting and decided to remove al-Bashir and formed a Transitional Military Council (TMC) headed by Lt. Gen. Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf on April 12, 2019, the DFC immediately issued statement condemning this formation and calling for power to be handed to a civilian. Lt. Gen. Hemidty of the RDF issued statement rejecting any solution that doesn’t satisfy the people, then Ibn Auf was forced to step down in less than twenty-four hours and replaced by Lt. Gen. Abdelfattah Alborhan and deputized by Lt. Ge. Mohamed Hamdan Doglo Hemiti, the TMC which consist of ten, reduced to seven after pressure from DFC, forcing the three members to resign, but the council pressed by lobby groups of NCP, securities, religious leaders and external forces hesitated in their negotiation with the DFC, and a member of DFC delegate, Dr. Maryam Al Sadiq Almahadi visited Emirate, then in an interview with her father Al Sadiq Almahadi, he said some points raised by SPA were not agreed upon, after that the TMC started hesitating. After a conference with ten political parties which collaborated with al-Bashir and religious groups, masses of Atbara launched the famous Atbara Revolutionary Train on April 23, 2019, described by western observers as the best revolution scenery ever [27], others think “Sudan’s protests feel like a trip back to revolutionary Russia” [28]. Followed by a convoy from Madani, Senar, Al Obaied and Darfur, all of which supported the SPA/DFC as the only representative of the revolution, and everyone was convinced that the negotiation continued well and both parties agreed on May 15, 2015 that:
1- A joint council of military and civilian to be formed.
2- The DFC will form a cabinet of ministers from neutral technocrats, and
3- A legislative council will be form 67% chosen by DFC and 33% jointly by TMC and DFC,
4- The transitional period should be three years, but they couldn’t agree on the percentage of civilian and military in the council and who will head the council, the TMC suspended negotiations for 48 hours.
It seemed that they were just taking time, during which the deputy of the TMC Lt. Ge. Mohamed Hamdan Doglo Hemiti, visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the spokesman Lt. Ge. Shemsaldin on 23 May 2019, they met the Crown Prince and Hemeti declared the support of Sudan to the Kingdom on their war in Yemen and Sudanese force will continued fighting Houthi to protect the Holly land, he also declared support against Iran. During the visit, a photo was circulated showing Lt. Gen. Taha the office ex-Manager of ex-President al-Bashir in background photo with Hemitei which raised many questions [29]. Then the Chairman of the TMC Lt. Gen. Abdelfattah Alborhan who supervised the Sudanese forces in Yemen in 2015 when in charge of ground forces, visited Egypt on 25 May 2019, two days after Hemitei visit to Saudi Arabia and declared supporting Egyptian government against any enemy [30].
The dispute between the TMC and the SPA/DFC is based on who will decide on behalf of the Sudanese people in sovereignty issues such as security and defence which includes the presence of the Sudanese forces in Yemen, which among the contention issues in Sudan, because most of Sudanese people want the withdraw of the forces, except those who were close to al-Bashir, for them, covered by religious claims of defending the Holly Sites, but in reality driven by the view that Sudan is an Arab country and they are helping an extended race and motivated by financial benefits, immediately after his return the chairman of TMC, Lt. Gen. Abdelfattah Alborhan attended both the Arab League Summit at Mecca on May 31, 2019, followed by the Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooper ation (OIC) on June 1, 2019, he met the Crown Prince Ibn Sliman, and announced that his country seeks democratic elections involving all political factions [31]!
Before the worsening relation between the Transitional Military Council and (TMC) and the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC), some opposition members of the DFC, particularly those in the Sudan Call (SC) visited the United Arab Emirate between April 18 to May 1, 2019, from Uma Party (UP) Maryam Almahadi, from SPLM/N (Agar) Malik Agar, Ismaiel Galab, Yasir Arman, Mubark Ardol and Khalid Omer Secretary General of Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) and Arku Manai of the SLM/Mini. It’s claimed in some press that, the Advisor of the Crown Prince of UAE Mahamed Dahlan with Lt. Gen. Taha were coordinating conspiracy to dismantle the Sudanese Revolution and secure the control of the TMC [32].
Finally on first and second June 2009, some reports claimed that the TMC was preparing to raid the sit-in at the military headquarter, most people didn’t believe it because it was the end of Ramadan and people were preparing to celibate Eid, while the DFC intended to make a big gathering for the Eid prayers at the sit-in so that the TMC couldn’t dare attack the sit-in. Unfortunately on the early morning of the 3rd of June which was 29th of Ramadan ten thousands (10,000) heavily armed Janjaweed of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) mixed with Sudanese National Inelegance and Security Service (NISS) members (numbers based on militants on square meters recorded by live videos watched by ICC and independent observers) attacked the sit-in, in a barbaric manner, the official death is nearly 140, while more than 40 bodies were removed from the Blue Nile, tied with ropes and big stones to leave no traces, and many bodies were transported to unknown destinations, eyewitnesses claimed the death toll is over 600, and most of them from the marginalized areas, which explain the hate speech by Hemeti when he said “why most of those in the sit-in are black Africans?” in another after the deliberation of the 19 years anniversary of the late SPLM/A Commander Yousif Kuwa Makki on March 30 he said “we defeat them in the field and they are coming here?” Little came from Sudan due to internet blackout, but it tells a lot [33, 34]
On June 6, 2019, the Peace and Security Council of African Union condemned the violence that led to the loss of lives and injuries of civilians, reaffirms the imperative for the military and security forces to ensure full protection of civilians and respect of human rights. It condemned unilateral action, requested that both parties support AU and IGAD efforts, immediate resumption of negotiation encourage a deluge to establish civilian-led Transitional Authority in Sudan (C-LTAS). The chairman of the, Commission was to immediately start facilitating a team and liaise with IGAD to bring parties back to dialogue and put C-LTAS, to suspend the participation of the Republic of Sudan in all AU activities, finally if TMC fail to hand power to C-LTA the council imposed punitive measure on individuals and entities [35].
Immediately the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abi Ahmed arrived Khartoum and met with the TMC and the DFC in Ethiopian Embassy, in a statement the DFC reiterated its position not to negotiate with the TMC, while dealing with Abi Ahmed as indirect mediator, with some immediate condition for any political process to take place, these are:
1) Formation of investigation committee backed by international community to investigate the break of the sit-in,
2) To ensure full responsibility of those that committed the crime and must be charged,
3) To stop all lawless killings and to withdraw Janjaweed militants from Sudanese cities,
4) Release political detainees,
5) Allow general freedom,
6) Remove internet blackout, used by the TMC to cause blackout on crimes by the security and militants in cities,
7) The goal from any mediation is to transfer the authority from the TMC to Transitional Civil Authority based on the declaration by the DFC accepted by all Sudanese people.
This is the situation, when the Civil Disobedience started by the DFC on June 9, 2019 successfully carried out for three days all over Sudan, it’s difficult to predict when the solution as desired by the revolution could be achieved or if the mediation will succeed and when; we appraised the decision of the AU chairman of peace and security council Moussa Faki Mahamat to appoint the IGAD chairman, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abi Ahmed as the head of the AU-IGAD joint team to mediate the Sudanese crises thus avoiding Egyptian interference, such efforts required international pressure; on the other hand, the Janjaweed militants brought from Chad and Niger, will resist any attempt to bring peace to Sudan, or lay down arms, after being lured to such high aspiration to form an extension of Gulf countries in Sudan, will it doesn’t matter much for African countries? As the current phase of struggle started in 1924 and it’s still going on, the nationalist are more determinant and stronger this time by majority of youth, while the sectarians and religious extremists are assisted this time from across the border, for them nationalism and pan-Africanism means nothing, because they are just looking eastwards to satisfy ethnic feelings, they won in the past many times for reasons stated earlier, but this time things are different, where Atbara which witnessed the first nationalistic demonstration in 1924, showed once again how determinant they are, as witnessed during the coming of Atbara train [36], such determination will inject the African continent with fresh and much determinant bloods to fulfil its cause for peace and prosperity.
Mahmoud E. Yousuf
[email protected]