Sudan’s Socialist Ba’ath Party leaves FFC alliance over Framework Agreement

The mainstream Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party announced its departure from the ranks of the Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC) coalition due to the fact that the majority of coalition parties signed the Framework Agreement, which the party believes is “devoted to legitimising the October 25 coup”.

In a statement read by Mohamed Diaeldin on Tuesday evening, the party affirmed its commitment to overthrowing the coup, removing its effects, and dismantling remnants of the dictatorial Al Bashir regime. The party considers these as basic conditions for building a sustainable democratic system.

Diaeldin explained that the Framework Agreement led to confusion in the political scene and the weakening of the unity of the revolutionary forces.

He said that the participation of the majority of the FFC in signing the Framework Agreement contradicts the basic goals and principles for which this broad alliance was established and “empties it of its revolutionary content”.

“The FFC is no longer the appropriate framework for mobilising and organising the broadest masses of the people in the struggle against the forces of tyranny and corruption,” the party said.

The party made it clear that it did its best within the FFC to prevent this strategic mistake from being committed, but to no avail.

Diaeldin renewed his commitment to work with the masses of the people and their forces to build a new alliance in order to overthrow the October 25 coup by escalating the uprising, including political strikes and civil disobedience actions.

The split-off Sudanese Ba’ath Party led by Mohamed Wadaa is a member of the newly-formed Forces for Freedom and Change-Democratic Block (FFC-DB), which also includes the National Accord Forces (NAF) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), amongst others.

The NAF, themselves a split-off faction of the FFC also referred to as the FFC-National Accord, are an alliance of former rebel movements including the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Jibril Ibrahim, currently Minister of Finance, a Sudan Liberation Movement spit-off faction headed by Minni Minawi, now governor of the Darfur Region, and the Democratic Justice Alliance headed by Mubarak Ardol, director of the Mineral Resources Company and former member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

There has been disagreement within the FFC-CC with regards to a political settlement with the military. The negotiations that led to the signing of the Framework Agreement and will likely lead to a Final Agreement by the end of this month are predominantly led by the FFC-CC, also referred to as the mainstream FFC.