Sudan’s opposition forces, Darfur displaced denounce new cabinet

According to Sudanese opposition forces and displaced leaders in Darfur, the appointment of the new cabinet members, presidential assistants and state governors by President Omar Al Bashir on Saturday, only means a reshuffle of the same officials.​

The chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance, and leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, Malik Agar, commented to Radio Dabanga by saying that the formation of Al Bashir’s new government turned out to be a transferral of the same persons to other locations.

“Nothing will change. It is clear that Khartoum is continuing its narrow-minded policies, that have already proven the regime’s failure on all fronts years ago,” he stated.

Yousef Hussein, spokesman for the Sudanese Communist Party, told Radio Dabanga that the National Congress Party (NCP) managed to seize power again by the “fraudulent election” in April, which was boycotted by the majority of the Sudanese”.

“The formation of the new government is an internal matter of the ruling party. It has nothing to do with Sudan and its people,” Hussein stressed. “It would have been better if the regime had responded to external initiatives and the internal demands, because the alternative will be a popular uprising.”

‘Illegitimate government’

The displaced in Darfur also expressed their doubt about the new government. “The destructive policies of the NCP will be continued,” Hussein Abu Sharati, head of the Darfur Displaced and Refugees’ Association, said. “The appointed governors will not have any decision-making power, as they are only puppets of the president, his aides and followers.”

“Change will only be realised if President Al Bashir and his aides recognise that the violence in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and the Blue Nile, in fact in Sudan in general, is a real injustice, which has brought the country and its inhabitants to the abyss of poverty.”

Abu Sharati stressed that “we all, without any exception, are subject to the law and accountability”, and demanded the “immediate disarmament of all the militants in Sudan”.

The coordinator of the Central Darfur camps for the displaced said that the people “do not recognise the new illegitimate government, because it is based on rigged election and ethnic cleansing, instead of the will of the people.

“Omar Al Bashir can never be the legitimate head of the Sudanese, as he is responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese, and wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide,” he stressed.

The Darfuri leader demanded from the organisers of the ‘Leave!’ campaign against the Khartoum regime, to “give the Darfur displaced and refugees a voice in the campaign”. He further called on the opposition forces to “develop a clear strategy to bring down Al Bashir’s regime through armed struggle and a popular uprising, and not by dialogues and conferences”.

The opposition parties launched the Leave! campaign in Sudan in February this year, calling for a general boycott of the April general election, and a nationwide intifada to topple the khartoum regime.