Leaders of the Islamic movement toppled a popular uprising in Sudan in 2019 said that the movement may support the army’s long stay in power at a time looking for a return to power after its participation in fighters in the war in the country, according to a Reuters report.
In the first interview with a media outlet in years, Ahmed Haroun, head of the National Congress Party (the ruling during the era of ousted President Omar al -Bashir) and one of the four Sudanese wanted by the International Criminal Court, said that he expects the army to remain in power after the war, and that the elections may allow his party and the related Islamic movement to return to power.
The war that has been going on for more than two years between the Sudanese army and the “Rapid Support Forces” led to waves of killing on an ethnic basis and the spread of famine and mass displacement, and they attracted foreign forces and caused what the United Nations describes as the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Although the “Rapid Support Forces” grabbed the reins in its western stronghold in Darfur and areas from the south and the absence of indications of stopping the fighting, the army has made great progress on several fronts in the past months, which are gains that the Islamists say they have contributed to their achievement.
Some army leaders and loyalists of the previous regime were underestimating the importance of talking about relations between them, for fear of being influenced by popular discontent with the ousted President Omar al -Bashir and his allies in the National Congress Party. But seven members of the movement and six military and government sources told Reuters that the progress made by the army recently allowed the Islamic movement to think about returning to play a national role.
This perception supports accusations of appointing a number of Islamists and their allies since last month in the government of Kamel Idris, the new technocrat, which was appointed by the army last May.
Army opinion
A representative of the Sudanese army leadership told Reuters, “Some Islamists may want to use the war to return to power, but we categorically say that the army does not ally or coordinate with any political party and does not allow any party to intervene.”
Speaking to “Reuters” late at night from a place where he disappears from view of the interruption of electricity services in northern Sudan, Harun said that the National Congress Party proposes a structure of a ruling that gives the army to control sovereign matters “given the threats to Sudanese security and external intervention” with the elections to come with a prime minister of government administration.
“We made a strategic decision that we only return to power through the election funds after the war … we will not be in any transitional government that is not elected after the war.” He added: «The Western model will not be appropriate for Sudan. It is necessary to reach a formula for the role of the army in politics in light of the security fragility and external ambitions, as this will not be the first or last war in the country. A senior army officer indicated that any transitional period led by the army exclusively before the elections “will not be short.” Aaron suggested holding a popular referendum on “who the army offers to rule.”
And Aaron is required by the International Criminal Court on charges of involvement in war crimes and genocide in Darfur in the early first decade of the twenty -first century, and it is charges that deny its health and confirm that it is a political and not legal court.
Fighters of the Islamic Movement
A document of the National Congress Party, obtained by “Reuters”, appears through a major Islamic official, a major role for Islamic networks since the beginning of the fighting. In the document, elements of the Islamists inform their leadership of the tasks they undertook and talked about their role in the direct contribution to the military effort of the army by between two thousand and three thousand fighters during the first year of the conflict. They also talked about the training of hundreds of thousands of civilians who responded to the army’s invitation to public mobilization, and more than 70,000 of them joined the operations. Three military sources from the army and allied factions said that this step has strengthened the ranks of the decreasing ground forces.
Military sources estimated the number of fighters directly linked to the National Congress Party by about five thousand, mainly served in the units of the “Special Action Forces”, which achieved one of the largest gains of the army, especially in Khartoum.
Islamic fighters and military sources reported that other fighters trained by Islamists serve in the elite reshape brigade and followed the General Intelligence Service.
Sources in the army and Aaron indicated that the Islamic factions have no authority over the army. Aaron questioned the validity of the document seen by “Reuters” and in the accounts that talk about the participation of thousands of fighters linked to the National Congress Party in the fighting alongside the army, and refused to give numbers about the number of Islamic fighters supporting the army. But he admitted that “it is not a secret that we support the army in response to the invitation of the Supreme Commander for Public Mobilization.”
Al -Burhan has repeatedly said that the banned National Congress Party will not be allowed to return to power, at a time when Islamic civilian employees would have been allowed to high positions in a number of government departments.
While the army reduces the relations with the Islamists, the voices of the “Rapid Support Forces” are above the matter. “It is the Islamists who sparked this war in an effort to return to power, and they are the ones who manage it and control the army’s decision,” said Mohamed Mokhtar, the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces.
Two officers familiar with the army said that the proof is working to achieve a balance between his keenness not to give up any influence of any political personalities or bodies, and he needed military, administrative and financial support from the Islamists ’networks.
Foreign allies
The Sudanese Islamic Movement has long provided military exercises for its elements, through means of what was known during the reign of Bashir as the reserve (Popular Defense Forces). During the war, the star of the semi -independent Islamic units ascended, most notably the Al -Bara Bin Malik Battalion. One of its leaders, Eng. Owais Ghanem, 37, told Reuters that he was injured three times while participating in decisive battles to break the siege on the army bases in the capital earlier this year. He added that the battalion members can obtain light weapons, artillery, and the aircraft driving under the army’s instructions and receive orders from it.
Ghanem said: “We are not fighting for the return of Islamists to power, but we are fighting to repel the aggression (Rapid Support Forces) … After the Islamists’ participation in the war, I expect their return through the elections,” Ghanem said.
Human rights observers are accused of the battalion of committing outside the judiciary in the areas they have recently regained in Khartoum, accusations that Ghanem denied.
The army leaders say that the battalion and other groups will be integrated into the army after the war, to avoid repeating what happened with the “Rapid Support Forces” formed by the Sudanese government to fight the rebellion in Darfur during the Bashir era. Military sources say that prominent Islamic figures have taken advantage of the long -standing relations with countries such as Iran and Turkey to help the army providing weapons. “This is a charge that we do not deny and honor that we do not claim,” Haroun said.
Any strengthening of an alliance with these countries or the increase in the influence of Islamists inside Sudan would lead to tension with the United States and increase hostility with some countries of the region that seek to defeat the currents of political Islam at the international level.
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