Sudan’s Ansar Affairs Authority welcomes tripartite mechanism and accuses govt of failing to protect citizens in Darfur

Abdelmahmoud Abuh, Secretary-General of the Ansar Affairs Authority*, welcomed the tripartite initiative of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), African Union, and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to facilitate negotiations between different parties in Sudan to resolve current disputes.

Abuh promised that the authority would work under its umbrella to establish a new platform with stakeholders from political parties, revolutionary forces, and armed movements to agree on a new position.

In the Eid sermon at the Imam Abdelrahman Mosque in Wad Nubawi, Omdurman, he stressed that the October 25 coup was necessary to agree on a clear roadmap for the remainder of the transitional period.

Abuh also said that the coup had disrupted the state’s mechanisms, paralysed the country, suppressed its people, halted economic reforms, and withheld international aid.

He welcomed the release of detainees and called for the release of all detainees and more confidence-building measures, including the abolition of the State of Emergency.

Abuh further accused the authorities of failing to safeguard the people in West Darfur, Khartoum, and other states.

He pointed to the breakdown of the security contract in the capital, including the spread of robberies, and considered this a shortcoming of the state authorities.

Abuh stressed that it was necessary to work hard ‘to stop the forbidden bloodshed’. He also called for the formation of a qualified mechanism for settling disputes and for authorities to address the issues faced by displaced people and refugees.

Refusal to participate

Some rebel movements and protest groups, including the Forces for Freedom and Chance (FFC) and the Resistance Committees of Khartoum, refuse to participate in a tripartite initiative of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), African Union, and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to facilitate negotiations between different parties in Sudan to resolve current disputes.

The groups refused to take part in a dialogue with the military coup authorities and those who support them as they fear that this will legitimise the coup.

Others, such as the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), have called on the revolutionary parties to make concessions and engage in the dialogue.

*The Ansar is a religious group in Sudan whose members are followers of Mohamed Ahmed El Mahdi who, in 1881, stood up against Anglo-Egyptian rule in Sudan. The late former president of the National Umma Party (NUP), El Sadig El Mahdi, was the great-grandson of the Mahdi.