Sudanese police strike, security service reshuffles

Shifts have been taking place in Sudan’s security services according to Deputy Head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC), as Khartoum police officers entered went on a 24-hour strike on Sunday.

On Sunday, police officers of the capital of Sudan entered into a strike, demanding that the police “be cleansed of the remnants of the former regime”, including those involved in distributing police uniforms to militia members during the popular uprising which began in mid-December 2018.

They also demanded that the police are maintained as “a national professional body serving the nation and the people, not political parties and politicians”.

The striking police officers, at the level of captain and below, asked memebers of the public to cooperate with all members of the police to ensure an environment in which law and citizenship prevail.

Security service reshuffle on the cards

Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s largest government militia, and Deputy Head of the TMC, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemeti) said: "The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) cannot be dissolved at the moment, but it can be restructured, to the extent that it can be a counter-terrorism, espionage, anti-smuggling, anti-corruption and combating money-laundering machanism" on Sunday.

He told officers and members of the operations department of the NISS in Khartoum on Sunday that the RSF are part of the security apparatus and “play their intrinsic role in protecting the country from any internal or external threats”. He called on the NISS to help in the Council's procedures to resolve the current crisis.

The new NISS director, Lt Gen Abubakir Dembalab said the restructuring of the NISS has already begun, making it a “national professional body”.

Background

Following ongoing demonstrations which led to the fall of President Al Bashir and the establishment of a TMC, Hemeti’s appointment as Head of the council was a controversial move. It is under his leadership that the RSF has been involved in or perpetrated uncountable raids, murders, rapes, abductions, robberies, and all manner of violence, especially in Darfur and the Two Areas (Blue Nile state and South Kordofan).