Sudan caretaker govt to be announced ‘end of this month’

According to Malik Agar, deputy chairperson of the Sovereignty Council, a new cabinet will be announced in Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, at the end of September. Following a visit to Uganda, Sovereign Council chair and army commander Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan is continuing his visits to countries in the region. Sudanese activists and politicians call for a broad civil front to stop the war and rebuild the country.

El Burhan is expected to visit Saudi Arabia before he will travel to New York on Wednesday, as head of the Sudanese delegation that will attend the 78th session of the UN General Assembly that started today.

On Saturday, he returned to Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, from the Ugandan capital Kampala, the sixth foreign visit since he left the General SAF Command in Khartoum on August 24.

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Ali El Sadig said in a press statement following their arrival that the talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday “dealt with the military and security situation in Khartoum and some areas of Darfur”.

Museveni “affirmed his support for the unity of Sudan, the sovereignty of its territory and the safety of its institutions, especially the SAF and their role in maintaining security for Sudan and its people”.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit travelled to New York yesterday, where he intends to highlight the armed conflict in Sudan on the sidelines of the UN Assembly and talk about his role in solving the crisis.

On Saturday, Mayadit met with Sudanese politicians and civil society leaders in Juba where renewed his commitment to mediate between the warring SAF and RSF.

Tut Galuak, the president’s security adviser, said that peace in Sudan should be achieved through dialogue and peaceful reconciliation, with the support of the political forces.

New government

in a press statement yesterday, Agar, who is also head of the Sudan People Liberation Movement-North faction in Blue Nile region, said that the names of the new ministers will be announced after the return of the head of the Sovereignty Council, Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, from the USA.

Since war erupted between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF in the Sudanese capital and the west of the country in mid-April, ministries, ambassies, UN agencies, and organisations moved to Port Sudan where they are working from temporary offices.

Agar called the threat of Gen Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week, to establish an alternative government in Khartoum in case El Burhan forms a caretaker government in Port Sudan “a scarecrow”.

He lashed out at the mainstream Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC-Central Council) alliance that last December agreed with the ruling junta (SAF and RSF) on the formation of a new, civilian government, after the withdrawal of the military from politics, but which opposes a new government unilaterally set up by the Sovereignty Council.

“The FFC-CC stand behind this scarecrow, aiming to disrupt the change of the currently acting government into a new, responsible government,” Agar said.

Since the October 2021 coup d’état of the SAF and the RSF against the FFC-CC brokered government of PM Abdallah Hamdok, a cabinet of acting ministers, most of them appointed by the Sovereignty Council, has been ruling the country. The council itself currently consists of army generals and leaders of rebel movements that signed the Juba Peace Agreement in October 2020.

In social media, and in particular by the RSF, the SAF has been repeatedly accused of cooperating with affiliates of the ousted regime of President Omar al Bashir (1989-2019).

Agar further stated that “the war, fought along regional and ethnic lines, forms the biggest threat to Sudan’s unity”.

‘Broad civil front’

Members of Mansam, a coalition of Sudanese political women groups, said in a statement yesterday, that they categorically reject “the formation of governments in areas controlled by each of the belligerents.

“No party in Sudan has the legitimacy to form a government,” the women stated. “That legitimacy ended after the October 2021 coup.”

The Mansam groups “will stand firm against any plot to divide the country and will seek with others to establish a broad civil front”.

Separately, the National Umma Party reported that Vice-President Maryam El Sadig visited the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, last week, where she discussed “with a number of heads of diplomatic missions interested in Sudanese affairs”, civil society efforts to end the war and achieve consensus between political and civil components by building a broad civil front in Sudan.

On Saturday, US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey reiterated Washington’s support for civilian initiatives to chart a new process for establishing a democratic system and transitioning to civilian rule.

He said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he met with a delegation of African civil society leaders, including Sudanese activists from Khartoum and Darfur, to discuss the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

“Our support for the Sudanese people is steadfast as they work to end this senseless fighting and develop a process to resume the stalled political transition,” he stated.

Seminar

On Saturday, the General Intelligence Service (GIS) in Port Sudan briefly detained Suleiman Ali, the former governor of El Gedaref, and 25 others after they attended a seminar on the current situation in the country.

Mohamed Idris, one of the detainees, said they were questioned about the seminar, “and nothing more”.  

All detainees were released on Saturday evening. Four of them were transferred to the central police station in Port Sudan, and emergency complaints were filed against them before being released on bail.

The released detainees described the detentions as “racially motivated”.

The Southern Red Sea Organisations Network condemned the detentions in a statement on Sunday, and said it holds the Red Sea state Security Committee fully responsible.