Sudan army mobilisation intensifies with Pride and Dignity training camps for volunteer recruits

ED DAMER / KASSALA – July 11, 2023

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The Sudanese army is progressing with its mobilisation efforts by establishing dozens of Pride and Dignity military training camps in which volunteers can receive basic military training. New camps have been opened in River Nile state and Kassala. There are growing concerns that recruitment efforts are happening alongside tribal lines.

The director of Ed Damer locality in River Nile state inaugurated the opening of the Martyr Colonel Mohamed Jadallah military training camp in Ed Damer town yesterday.

The coordinator of the Ed Damer Pride and Dignity military training camps and the director of the River Nile State General Intelligence Service (GIS) attended the ceremony, the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported yesterday.

Locality director Osman Mohamed praised the residents of Ed Damer Block 14, where the new camp was set up, for their support of the new Pride and Dignity camp.

The camps are organised in response to the call by Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, also head of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, “to gain the honour of defending the homeland, religion, and honour”.

El Burhan called for a ‘general mobilisation’ of all young and capable people to join the SAF to fight against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a nationwide speech two weeks ago.

Mohamed said that the people of Ed Damer locality “are a wonderful model for the Sudanese by hosting people who fled the fighting in Khartoum and facilitating convoys to support the SAF”.

“Ed Damer today is advancing the ranks with the new Pride and Dignity camp, which is one of the 30 training camps set up in the locality to train 10,000 young volunteers and others capable of carrying weapons to secure residential neighbourhoods and to support the SAF.”

The coordinator of the Pride and Dignity camps in Ed Damer, Mudasir Yasin, confirmed the completion of all technical and administrative arrangements in the 30 training camps for volunteers “under the supervision of officers and non-commissioned officers of the artillery corps”.

Kassala camps

The acting governor of Kassala, Khojali Hamad, has declared a general mobilisation and opened training camps in the state in response to El Burhan’s call.

When addressing the meeting of the High Committee for Public Mobilisation and Alert in Kassala yesterday, he said that “the rebellion [of the RSF] attempted to transform the values ​​of the people of Sudan into a pattern of violating sanctities by expelling people from their homes and plundering their assets”.

The commander of the 11th Infantry Division in Kassala, Maj Gen Hassan Abuzeid, expressed his appreciation for “the alignment of all the people of Kassala behind the armed forces to protect Sudan and to confront the rebellion.”

Tribal recruitment

There are growing concerns that attempts by the SAF and RSF to recruit new troops are happening alongside tribal and ethnic lines, dragging civilians into the fighting and exacerbating the potential for tribal conflict and civil war.

Journalist Fatima El Ghazali told Radio Dabanga of the dangers of tribal alignment last week, cautioning that it could lead “towards a holocaust impacting not only Sudan” but also bordering countries like Chad.

El Ghazali highlighted that, before his general mobilisation call and before the clashes began on April 15, El Burhan already tried to galvanise a tribal mobilisation.

According to the journalist, El Burhan delivered a speech to the River Nile tribes that was widely condemned by those concerned about the nation’s interests.