Status of Sudan junta agreement unclear after conflicting reports

El Wasig El Bereir, Secretary-General of the National Umma Party (NUP) and spokesperson for the Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC) said that the signing of the framework agreement with the military will be no later than Monday. However, Adel Khalafallah, the spokesperson for the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, says that the signing of the framework agreement, originally set for December 3, has been postponed for an indefinite period.

El Wasig El Bereir told Radio Dabanga that the signing has been delayed because of continuing efforts to persuade rebel leaders Minni Minawi, now Governor of the Darfur region, and Jibril Ibrahim, currently Sudan’s Minister of Finance, to sign the framework agreement. “The majority of the political and professional forces of the revolution is ready to sign.”

In order to expedite the agreement in order to form a new civilian government as soon as possible, the negotiators, the AU-IGAD-UN Trilateral Mechanism, proposed to postpone talks on four important and contentious issues; justice and transitional justice, security and military reform, empowerment removal*, and the Juba Peace Agreement have been postponed for the final agreement.

El Bereir said that it is expected that the signing of a final agreement with the junta will take place within three to four weeks, after which the new power structures will be formed.

However, Adel Khalafallah, the spokesperson for the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, says that the signing of the framework agreement, originally set for December 3, has been postponed for an indefinite period.

He told Radio Dabanga that the FFC-CC has now formed four committees to study the comments on the draft constitutional document developed by the Sudanese Bar Association, the political declaration of intent signed by the military and the civilian opposition, and the framework agreement.

He accused the military of seeking to divide the FFC-CC. “With their comments that have been added to the transitional constitution draft and the framework agreement they intend “to buy time and cause more cracks in the body of the forces of the revolution”.

Khalafallah pointed to “a disturbance in the priorities of some members of the FFC”** and “the widening circle of those rejecting the settlement”. He said that “the balance of power is not in the interest of any political process that could end the military coup and liquidate its effects”. Referring the widening circle of reactions rejecting the settlement.

He affirmed his party’s adherence to its position that a settlement with the military cannot be reached if it does not achieve “the goals of the revolution and the aspirations of the Sudanese people”.

Lawyer Sati El Haj, chair of the Nasserist Social Justice Movement, said that the party categorically rejects the military’s input to the documents of the transitional arrangements.

“The talks should be limited to the civilian forces, including the armed struggle movements,” he told Radio Dabanga. The military must be excluded from the negotiations.

“In addition, any agreement that does not take into account the resistance committees and their political charters will not succeed in crossing the transitional period,” he said and called for “strengthening the resistance committees, rooting them, and relying on them to accomplish the tasks of the transitional period”.

* The full name of the ERC is the Committee for Dismantling the June 30 1989 Regime, Removal of Empowerment and Corruption, and Recovering Public Funds. It was set up by the government of Abdallah Hamdok at the end of 2019 with the aim to purge Sudan of the remnants of the Al Bashir regime. Empowerment (tamkin) is the term with which the ousted government of Omar Al Bashir supported its affiliates by granting them far-going privileges, including government functions, the setting-up of various companies, and tax exemptions.

** The FFC alliance has been prone to divisions since its formation in early January 2019 by political parties and groups that signed the Declaration for Freedom and Change. The National Umma Party (NUP), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and the Socialist Arabic Ba’ath Party that each witnessed splits during the reign of Al Bashir, have now fragmented further due to opposing views and standpoints on talks with the military – which further clouds the current political scene in Sudan. The FFC-CC alliance, also known as the mainstream FFC, which is currently negotiating with the junta, consists of several (split-off) political parties and new groups such as the SPLM-Democratic Revolutionary Movement (DRM) , chaired by former rebel leader Yasir Arman. The Communist Party of Sudan withdrew from the FFC alliance in November 2020.