Committee to start investigating security forces mutiny in Sudan

Yesterday, the members of the fact-finding committee that will investigate the rebellion of security forces on Tuesday, were sworn-in by the chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan.

The committee consists of five people, including a senior prosecutor. Chaired by Lt Gen Esam Karar, it will investigate the Operations Authority mutiny, determine who is responsible for the violent incidents, in addition to “identifying all who participated, contributed, or instigated the events”.

A spokesman for the General Intelligence Service (GIS) said in statement on Thursday that the mutiny started in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan.

About 800 demobilised combatants of the security apparatus’ Operations Authority refused to accept their dues, saying they were arbitrarily dismissed. Therefore, they deserve twice the value of the after-service benefits, based on a period of 18 years, to become a running pension, he reported.

The force in El Obeid detained the committee members who would hand them their dues, and incited Operations Authority sectors in Khartoum, Northern State, West Kordofan, and South Darfur.

In the end of July last year, Sudan’s infamous National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) was reformed, its competences adjusted, and its name was changed to General Intelligence Service (GIS). The NISS Operations Authority would be dissolved and its forces were given the choice to join the army or the Rapid Support Forces militia.

The total number of the Operations Authority forces is 11,737, the GIS spokesman explained. About 5,800 of them chose for retirement after the dissolution of the security apparatus department, while 2,650 of them would join the Rapid Support Forces, the army or other departments of the GIS. They are all entitled to after-service benefits.

The forces of the Operations Authority are operating in various sectors. They secure oil fields and the country’s borders in cooperation with joint forces of the neighbouring countries.

On Wednesday, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, Chairman of the Sovereign Council, announced the formation of a joint military-legal team that will investigate the violent incidents.

The deputy chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Mohamed ‘Hemeti’, and the Forces for Freedom and Change have accused former NISS director Salah Gosh of being behind the rebellion.

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