Siddig Tawer: Sudan junta ‘is preparing to tighten its grip on the country’

According to Siddig Tawer, prominent member of Sudan’s Arab Socialist Baath Party, the current rumours about imminent decisions to be announced by Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan are intended to prepare the public opinion for a tightened grip by the military on the country.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga on Thursday, Tawer, who was member of the Sovereignty Council during the government of Abdallah Hamdok (2019-2021), said that the military junta that seized power with a coup on October 25 last year intends “to monopolise the government, block the way for any civil-led state, and defeat the revolution”.

He said that El Burhan, head of the Sovereignty council and Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces “is trying to reinforce the military dictatorship by talking about the incompatibility of civilians to form a government despite sufficient space and time, by issuing proposals to form a pro-forma government, and calling for elections in the current circumstances so that the results will guarantee the survival of the military”.

The politician attributed “the inability of the revolutionary groups and parties to agree on a government of technocrats to the slow pace of coordination between them, in addition to the attempts of the putschists to thwart and sabotage the unity of the democrats.

“This is in contrast to the calls of the people to reach consensus and establish a civil authority. But the military junta is making use of the security services and their accomplices to prevent the unification of the civil forces,” he said.

Tawir urged “the civil revolutionary forces is to speed up the pace of coordination among them, not for the purpose of merging into one body, but to agree on their shared goals”.

“This step is possible, and has been accomplished in some of Sudan’s states,” he concluded. “The forces in the centre should expedite the coordination.”

Earlier this week, another former member of the Sovereignty Council warned that the situation in Sudan may lead to the country's eventual descent into war.

Mohamed El Faki Suleiman, a member of the Unionist Association that was one of the founding coalitions that created the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance, told Radio Dabanga that the “already fragmented civil and military forces and hateful discourses are a ready-made recipe for war”.

He also called on all civil forces to align themselves behind a single clear agenda.