Sudan rebels: Nominations for Ministers are ‘quotas in its ugliest form’

The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of armed movements, rejects the list of nominations of ministers for the interim government. It called on Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdouk to conduct broader consultations, including the Sudan Revolutionary Front, before forming a government.

According to the SRF, its leadership has not been contacted about the nominations at all.

In a statement signed by Minni Minawi, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM), and Malik Agar, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North faction Agar, the SRF described the nominations of ministers as “quotas in its ugliest form”.

“The revolution has been taken over by individuals and political forces that use the revolution to get power themselves,” the SRF says.

It accused those forces of not being interested in resolving issues like war and full citizenship for all, in respecting diversity, and in achieving the goals of the revolution. “It is an attempt to capture the harvest of 30 years of struggle of the people throughout Sudan.”

What is needed is a restructuring of the state, not a reproduction of the former regime, the statement of the rebels claims.

Hijacked

At a festival in the South Sudanese capital Juba on Friday, Minni Minawi, chairman of the SRF, launched a fierce attack on the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in Sudan. He accused the coordination committee of the FFC of “racism, and hijacking and stealing the revolution”.

According to Minawi, members of the SRF played a pivotal role in establishing the FFC. He pointed out that he led the internal and external action committees, Dr Jibril Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) drafted the Declaration of Freedom and Change, and that Yasir Arman, deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, headed the political committee abroad.

He denied that the SRF demanded a fixed number of ministers (a quota). According to Minawi, the SRF only asked that “the peace file, that is at the root of the crisis in Sudan, be included in the Constitutional Declaration”.

He said that the December Revolution is an extension of the work of the armed revolutionary forces, stressing the participation of all of the Sudanese people in the revolution.

JEM leader and SRF deputy head Jibril Ibrahim said the SRF leaders came to Juba at the invitation of President Salva Kiir in order to unite the SRF and other armed forces.

In a speech at the festival in Juba, Ibrahim said that Kiir is mediating between the SRF and the present Sudan government in order to achieve peace and address the roots of the crisis.

The rebel leader stressed that sustainable peace cannot be achieved without unity of the armed movements. He added that achieving peace does not mean looking for jobs or positions, but addressing the causes and roots of the war.

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