Rebels: ‘Sudan Call not responsible for armed resistance’

The meetings of the Sudan Call forces in the French capital Paris are due to end today after five days of deliberations. The rebel movements reaffirmed that the Sudan Call group has no responsibility for the armed resistance in the country.

In the meetings, the members of the Sudan Call, an alliance of Sudanese opposition parties and armed movements, agreed on the group’s statutes and a unified political position.

Hasabo Ibrahim, member of the Farmers Association Secretariat which is a party of the Sudan Call forces, explained to Radio Dabanga on Sunday that “tangible results were reached and all minor differences were overcome”.

El Sadig El Mahdi, head of the National Umma Party, and chairman of the Sudan Call group reported that the participating parties agreed on alternative policies to rebuild the Sudan in the future

The parties agreed to push for an uprising in the country, and to send an appeal to the international community for support to the Sudanese people in their wishes for change.

Expert committees will be formed with the task to formulate solutions for the economic crisis and the restoration of civic liberties in the country, Dr Jibril Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement and deputy chairman of the Sudan Call forces said.

He added that the parties also agreed to develop their position on the peace processes in the country. They are ready to push forward the dialogue if the government is willing.

Armed struggle

The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of armed movements) under the leadership of Malik Agar and Minni Minawi, issued a joint statement on Sunday in which they reaffirmed that the armed struggle against the Khartoum regime is the responsibility of the SRF, and not the Sudan Call group.

“We declare our full commitment to stopping the hostilities,” the statement reads.

“The SRF is fully responsible for any armed action, and the Sudan Call and its political parties and [civil society] organisations have nothing to do with any armed actions.

“The Sudan Call is a peaceful civil alliance in which the RSF groups are participating as political blocs.”

According to the statement, the armed action “was imposed by the regime's violence against the Sudanese – that will end with the realisation of a comprehensive peace, a state of citizens, without discrimination, and a just and true democracy”.

Regime-change

The Sudan Call, a two-page political communiqué calling for regime-change and democracy, was signed by representatives of the NUP, the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of opposition parties), the Civil Society Initiative, and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements), in Addis Ababa on December 3, 2014. Other Sudanese opposition groups and parties joined them in the following year.

After signing the Sudan Call document, the chairmen of the NCF and the Civil Society Initiative, and the legal consultant of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North were detained by the National Intelligence and security Service (NISS) upon their return to Khartoum three days later. They were released on April 9, 2015, a few days before the general election would begin in the country.

El Mahdi remained abroad in a self-imposed exile until early 2017. On his return to the Sudanese capital on January 26 that year, he was welcomed by a huge crowd of supporters.

In March this year, President Al Bashir denounced “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.”

The NISS reacted by filing an official complaint against NUP president El Sadig El Mahdi in early April.