Sudan’s opposition parties call for action

The National Consensus Forces (NCF), a coalition of opposition parties, have decided to transform the Sudan Appeal document into action, in order to bring about peaceful regime change in Sudan.

In a meeting last week, held at the house of the late former president of Sudan (1964-1969), Ismail El Azhari, in Omdurman, the leaders of the NCF decided to “immediately proceed, and mobilise the Sudanese for an uprising to overthrow the current regime”.

The NCF stated in a press release, issued on Thursday, that the assembled opposition party leaders extensively discussed the implementation of the Sudan Appeal, a political communiqué, signed by the NCF and other opposition forces in Addis Ababa on 3 December. They also agreed on the adjustment of a number of clauses of the Joint Action Charter, which was not much later added to the communiqué.

'Comprehensive vision'

Apart from an intifada, the opposition parties stressed the need to reach a “comprehensive vision for a transitional period”. They also agreed to add the NCF’s draft text of a “new interim constitution” to the Sudan Appeal documents.

The two-page political communiqué, co-signed by the Sudan Revolutionary Front (an alliance of the main rebel movements), the National Umma Party, and the Civil Society Initiative (CSI), calls for the ending of the civil wars in the country, the dismantling of the one-party system, and the rebuilding of Sudan based on democratic principles and equal citizenship. The signatories agree that if a peaceful regime change cannot be achieved by a broad national dialogue, it should be enforced by a popular uprising.

On 6 December, a day after their return to Khartoum, Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the NCF, Dr Amin Mekki Madani, CSI chairman, and Farah El Agar, legal consultant of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), were detained by agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). They were held incommunicado until Monday night, when they were transferred to Kober Prison in Khartoum North. NISS informed their defence team that the two were charged with “undermining the constitutional order, and violently opposing the authorities”. The charges are punishable with the death penalty. Signatory El Sadig El Mahdi, leader of the Umma Party, remains abroad.