Mereja.Forum

[Abe Abraham]

• The Islamists' coup against Al-Burhan: Abandon a burnt card or a maneuver
  
  KHARTOUM - Islamists and remnants of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in Sudan are sending signals of readiness to abandon the army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, despite the strong relationship between the two parties, amid questions about who is behind these signals. pressures it up.
  
  Sudanese sources revealed to The Arab Weekly that the Islamists’ talk at the present time about a contradiction with Al-Burhan or threatening to get rid of him is fabricated because the relationship between them is old and well-known. .
  
  And broad sectors began to trust a common narrative that Al-Burhan represented a part in the remnants of former President Omar Al-Bashir within the army, and he was fighting their battle, and he intended to carry out a coup that would return them to power, a situation that does not serve his interest.
  
  The Islamic movement, and at the heart of it the Brotherhood, dominated power in Sudan during the rule of Al-Bashir, which extended for three decades, and the Brotherhood established a wide network of financial, commercial and political interests.
  

  
  Othman Mirghani: Al-Burhan is just an officer whose job ends with the end of his job

  The same sources indicated that talking about the signs of an imminent conflict between the Islamists and the remnants of Al-Bashir and Al-Burhan, or that they are seeking to get rid of him as he is too lenient with Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hamidti), the purpose of which is to restore the lost luster and popularity that he obtained at the beginning of the war and they began to retreat after Inability to defeat the Rapid Support Forces.
  
  On the contrary, the data indicating the existence of a disagreement between Al-Burhan and the Islamists in Sudan leads to the fact that the relationship between them is strong and the preparation for bringing military leaders affiliated with them unequivocally to the fore in anticipation of developments that may put him out of power, as his pragmatism in imitating the former president did not help him in obtaining support from Separate parties, and he was unable to unify the military establishment behind him, and its leaders began to drop out of the battle or sided with the Rapid Support Forces.
  
  And when the Sudanese army was forced to overthrow the Al-Bashir regime under the pressure of a massive popular revolution, the Islamists moved away from the political front, and the National Congress Party, led by Al-Bashir, was banned and many of its officials were imprisoned.
  
  Alex de Waal, a researcher on Sudanese affairs at the Rift Valley Institute, said that Sudanese politics is organically linked to the military, and the army chose an “unknown officer” (Al-Burhan) to put him at the head of the country to calm the thoughts of the street and the international community.
  
  Al-Burhan deliberately made many statements against the Islamists and the National Congress Party to suggest that there was no relationship with the previous regime, and to seek to win the confidence of political forces that entered into a partnership with the military component that stipulated the handing over of power to a civilian government.
  
  Othman Mirghani, editor-in-chief of the independent daily Al-Tayyar, who fled Khartoum after the war broke out and settled in Cairo, said, "Islamists are investing in the exceptional circumstances the country is going through to secure a position in the upcoming political settlement."
  
  The return of the Islamists was strongly evident when Al-Burhan sent, on Friday, a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in which he requested the change of his delegate to Sudan, Volker Peretz, and claimed that he had become a “party, not a mediator” in Sudan, and accused him of committing “fraud and misleading” while leading a political process, which encouraged Hemedti on “launching military operations.”
  
  Al-Bashir’s supporters previously expressed their objection to Volcker and demonstrated against him for months and demanded his replacement, as the UN envoy played an important role in signing the framework agreement on the fifth of last December, and he decided to hand over power to a civilian government after signing a comprehensive political agreement (which was supposed to be signed on the first of April) and the exit of the military establishment and its Islamic leaders from the political and economic arenas.
  

  
  Alex de Waal: Al-Burhan has always been forced to negotiate with the military and the old guard before all important decisions

  Othman Mirghani emphasized that Al-Burhan is nothing but “a chess piece in Sudanese politics, as he does not represent a political current, but his role is related to his job as an officer in the armed forces.”
  
  The outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April led to chaos in Khartoum, and a number of senior officials of the former regime escaped from prisons. Al-Burhan, which aimed to abort a military coup that they were preparing for to return to power.
  
  Alex de Waal, an expert on Sudanese affairs, indicated that Al-Burhan “faces several obstacles.. unlike Hamidti and Al-Bashir before him, he does not have special financial resources to be able to conclude political settlements.. Therefore, he has always been forced to negotiate with the military and with the old guard before all decisions.” the mission".
  
  Amir Babiker, editor-in-chief of the "Mowatinoon" website, which specializes in the affairs of the Horn of Africa, said that General Al-Burhan "created a relationship with the Islamists to achieve his ambition to rule."
  
  He added, despite his attempt to "show his distance from them, but he responded to their pressure for their presence in the security services, and carried out the coup of the twenty-fifth of October 2021."
  
  Al-Burhan carried out a military coup before the set date for handing over power to civilians, which allowed the activities of the committee to dismantle Al-Bashir's regime, combat corruption and his economic empire to be frozen, and a number of military leaders to return to the army, the judiciary and some executive agencies.
  
  A military analyst, who asked not to be identified, said, “The Islamists have a presence in the military institution that they have worked on since they came to power in the 1989 al-Bashir coup. Al-Burhan tried to expel some of them, but he kept others at the same time.”
  Mirghani pointed out that Al-Burhan is “just an officer in the armed forces whose mission ends with the end of his job, which may be achieved immediately after the end of the war.”
  
  Today, General Al-Burhan finds himself alone in the face of Islamists who accuse him of being lenient with the Rapid Support Forces, with whom he had good relations, as he worked as an officer in the Central Darfur military region during the years of the conflict that broke out in the region located in the west of the country in 2003, and at that time Hemedti was the commander of the Janjaweed forces that It was the nucleus for the subsequent formation of the Rapid Support Forces, and it played an effective role in breaking the armed movements there.
  
  
  
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