NUP downplays Al Bashir threats against Sudan Call forces

The National Umma Party (NUP) has downplayed any concern for threats by President Al Bashir of legal action against parties involved in Sudan Call.

In an interview with El Sudani newspaper on Thursday, Al Bashir scorned the Sudan Call, who have just concluded a series of consultation meeting in Paris.

Al Bashir said Sudan Call “is not a viable alliance” and added that similar experience has failed in the past and "this new alliance will have the same fate.

"The government completely refuses the participation of any political party authorised to work inside the country that has in an alliance with an armed faction. This is not allowed by the law, it is not possible to combine military activity and political action," Al Bashir said.

"So we repeat that the law applies to any party enters that into an alliance with groups carrying arms."

Repeated accusations

Dr Maryam El Sadig, the co-president of the NUP, said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that she was surprised that Al Bashir repeated the same accusations more than three years after the Paris Declaration of August 2014.

She said that “the government tried to sabotage Sudan Call when it was founded by arresting its leaders and bring them to trial, but failed.”

Referring to the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) roadmap for peace in Sudan, El Sadig wondered how Al Bashir could call for legal accountability against the forces with which he had a road map agreement signed in an international presence.

When asked about the return to Sudan by NUP leader Imam El Sadig El Mahdi, who was elected chairman of the Sudan Call Forces coalition at the Paris meetings, she said this decision will be left to the estimates of the NUP and Sudan Call.

She emphasised that Al Bashir's threat had nothing to do with determining the date of Imam El Mahdi’s return.

Anti-corruption measured ridiculed

During the interview with Radio Dabanga, Dr El Sadig ridiculed the recent measures announced by the government to fight corruption by arresting banking leaders and businessmen, considering that as a battle between the centres of power within the government, pointing out that the circle of corruption surrounds the government and called for accountability to all leaders involved in corruption.

She also ridiculed the President's recent remarks about rationalisation of corruption and combating corruption “while he travels on a $80 million aircraft with a daily rent of $120,000”.