Sudanese president forms cabinet, appoints state governors

President Omar Hassan Al Bashir on Saturday announced the names of his new cabinet, presidential assistants, and state governors, after his inauguration earlier this week.

Minister of Finance, Badreldin Mahmoud, and Interior Affairs Minister, Esmat Abdelrahman, remain in their posts. Ibrahim Ghandour, presidential assistant for the past two years, replaces Ali Karti as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Lt. Gen. Mustafa Obeid was appointed as “acting Defence Minister, replacing Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court in March 2012 for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Hussein will be the new governor of Khartoum state.

Mohamed Zayed is taking over the post of Oil Minister from his predecessor Awad Mekkawi.

Concerning the appointment of state governors, the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) preferred to keep governors far from their home area. Al Bashir appointed Abdelwahid Yousef as governor of North Darfur, Adam El Faki for South Darfur, Khalil Abdallah for West Darfur, and Anas Omar for East Darfur. Jaafar Abdelhakam remains governor of Central Darfur.

Ahmed Haroun, also indicted by the ICC, keeps his post as governor of North Kordofan. President Al Bashir himself was charged by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, and in 2010 for genocide.

The NCP won the general election held last April as was widely expected.  The election was boycotted by most of the opposition parties, and marked by a very low voter turnout.

The ruling party allocated 30 percent of the cabinet posts to other parties that particpated in the election, such as the oldest political party of Sudan, the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party, led by El Sayed Osman El Mirghani.

Observers expect that the new government does not imply any radical change in foreign or economic policies for the next period.

In his inauguration speech last Tuesday, Al Bashir said that he intends to normalise relations with the West. He also announced that the broad National Dialogue, he proposed in January last year, would be resumed soon.  

For a complete list of the newly appointed officials, see the factbox on Radio Tamazuj.