Aisha Mousa resignation ‘refusal to participate in degradation of Sudanese people’

Aisha Mousa, Member of the Sovereignty Council who resigned last week, has explained the reasons her resignation, which came in the wake of the violent dispersal of a peaceful protest and the deaths of two young activists on May 11 (Ramadan 29 according to the Muslim calendar) in Khartoum to commemorate the June 3/Ramadan 29 massacre in 2019*.

In her statement released yesterday, Mousa apologises “to all women of Sudan, who still continue to suffer exclusion from participating in decision making, and to all the mothers and families of the martyrs, the wounded, the lost, to all boys and girls students, to the children and to the people of special needs, to the elderly, to those in domestic and foreign prisons, to the sick, to the Civil Forces Alliance.”

Mousa further apologises to all the people of Sudan, to the individuals of the government of Sudan, and to many other entities. “I apologise to all of them for not continuing to participate in this path, which if had been completed in the spirit of the valorous revolution of December, it would not have led to more killing, oppression, poverty, and suffering.”

Mousa emphasises: “My apology is not a disability to participate, however, it is a rejection to participate in more degradation of our great people.”

Mousa, who represents the National Gathering Initiative, was sworn-in as a Member of the Sovereignty Council in August 2019, when the council was formed to replace the Transitional Military Council (TMC) which had governed Sudan since the overthrow of the 30-year Al Bashir regime in April that year. The new council consisting of a mixture of military and civilian members, was a result of a power-sharing agreement between the TMC and Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

*On June 3, 2019, two days before the end of Ramadan, the large sit-in in front of the army command, was broken up with excessive violence. More than 127 protestors were reportedly killed. The bodies of 40 of them were found floating in the Nile. More than 700 other protesters sustained injuries and at least 100 people went missing in what is now called the June 3 or Ramadan 29 massacre.

Read Aisha Mousa’s complete resignation statement here (PDF)