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The risks of a military coup in Sudan appear to have increased amid disputes between civilian and military elements of the transitional government following the creation by the country’s military chief of a new body with broad powers.
Several civilian elements, including the prime minister and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance, have rejected the powers conferred on the new Transitional Partners Council (TPC) and urged General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan to review his decision.
‘The powers granted to the TPC are above its mandate and violate the constitutional declaration, in addition to confiscating the powers of the next legislative assembly’
– Faisal Mohammed Salih, Government Spokesperson
Burhan heads the Sovereign Council of Sudan, a civil-military body established in August 2019.
He is Sudan’s top executive authority and is overseeing a fragile three-year transition to civilian rule after the April 2019 ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir.
Burhan issued a presidential decree last week to form the TPC, which would comprise the FFC, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), which is a coalition of rebel forces, the military component of the transitional government and the council of ministers.
The corps consists of 29 members, including 13 from the FFC, seven from the SRF, six from the army, along with two other community leaders from eastern Sudan.
Under the decree, the TPC will have the powers to direct the transition period and to serve the high interests of Sudan, resolve differences between government partners and help implement a recently signed peace agreement with the rebels.
Rejecting the measure, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said Burhan had exceeded his prerogatives by conferring excessive powers on the new body.
Burhan defended his decision on Wednesday, saying that both civilian and military transitional rulers have so far failed to fulfill the aspirations of the Sudanese people.
Breach of constitution
The crux of the current civil-military disputes is over changes in the governing institutions and how to integrate the rebel movements that signed a peace agreement with the transitional government in Juba in October.
There was already tension following the signing of the Juba agreement, which was rejected by some members of the CTF, as well as some of the rebels, but the disputes escalated after the arrival of the rebel leaders in Khartoum last month and reached their peak. with Burhan’s decision they form the TPC.
‘It is a conspiracy by the military to seize power and against the August agreement to share power’
– Alfatih Youssef, Sudanese Professionals Association
Government spokesman Faisal Mohammed Salih said in a statement on Friday that Burhan’s decree contradicted the “constitutional declaration” signed in August last year between pro-democracy activists and military generals.
Meanwhile, rebels not signatories to the Juba agreement, including the People’s Liberation Movement of North Sudan (SPLM-N) led by Abdul Aziz Alhilu and the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdul Wahid al-Nur, also they rejected the TPC.
Other tensions between the civilian and military leadership include the dissolution of state-owned companies controlled by the army, the restructuring of the army, militias and security organs, along with the recent normalization agreement with Israel.
The military, which is close to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, lobbied for the move, while Hamdok opposed it.
Peace agreement
The Juba peace agreement covers the five states of Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, and armed conflicts in central, northern and eastern Sudan.
The agreement included nine protocols covering power sharing, wealth sharing, humanitarian access to all conflict zones, security agreements, justice, including cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC), property of land, the return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their lands of origin, reconciliation and compensation for war victims.
The main rebel factions that signed the agreement were the SPLM-N led by Mali Agar, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) and the Council of Transition of the SLM. , among other smaller groups.
The power-sharing agreement gave the rebels 25 percent of the composition of the cabinet (Council of Ministers) and the next legislative assembly.
Following Burhan’s decree, the Council of Ministers officially rejected the measure in a statement, arguing that the TPC’s mandate went beyond what was agreed upon when they signed the peace agreement.
“This [Transition Partners] the advice is [only] it is supposed to be a body for consultation and conflict resolution between the four levels of power, including the FFC, the army, the cabinet and the rebels of the SRF ”, said the Council of Ministers.
Government spokesman Salih said the decree’s vague language was intentional to expand the power of the TPC.
“The powers granted to the TPC are above its mandate and violate the constitutional declaration, in addition to violating and confiscating the powers of the next legislative assembly, including monitoring, counting, etc.,” he said.
The FFC also rejected the powers of the new council, emphasizing that it should only be for consultations between government institutions and new peace partners to decide the best way to implement the peace agreement.
The National Umma Party (NUP) and the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) also rejected the presidential decree, calling for its immediate review.
‘Conspiracy of the military’
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which led the protests against Bashir, has threatened to organize protests against the TPC.
“We are looking with suspicion at the formation of this council, including its powers, which aim to abort the democratic transformation and civilization of the state in Sudan,” SPA lead member Mohamed Alfatih Youssef told MEE.
“It is a conspiracy by the military to take power and against the August agreement to share power.”
Grassroots Resistance committees have also rejected the formation of the TPC.
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In multiple statements, its committees in Khartoum, Atbara, Port Sudan and other cities called for nationwide protests to coincide with the second anniversary of the 2018 Sudanese revolution on December 19.
The protests would be to express rejection of the government’s performance, including violations of the constitution by the army, its failure to ameliorate the economic crisis and the delay in the formation of a legislative assembly.
Sovereign Council member Aisha Musa al-Saeed also said that she viewed Burhan’s presidential decree as a coup against the August 2019 constitutional declaration.
Problems can be solved
However, the leaders of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front have emphasized the importance of the TPC, accusing some civilian elements of trying to weaken the representation of the rebels and the implementation of the peace agreement.
SRF lead member Altoum Hajo said the council was the only way to provide real and equitable power sharing for the rebels, as well as to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement.
‘We see that history repeats itself and the elites of the center in Khartoum want again to exclude the other parts of the country, especially those affected by the war, in political representation and the distribution of wealth’
– Altoum Hajo, Sudanese Revolutionary Front
“We see history repeating itself and the elites of the center in Khartoum want again to exclude the other parts of the country, especially those affected by the war, in political representation and the distribution of wealth,” he said.
“This will reproduce the old state that grants the privileges of the country to a specific political class.”
Senior FFC member Haidar Alsafi downplayed the disputes, describing them as a minor misunderstanding that could be resolved with further consultation between different stakeholders.
Alsafi told MEE that “intensive contacts and talks are taking place between the FFC, the Council of Ministers, the army and the SRF to resolve these differences as soon as possible.”
“We have many economic problems, the spread of the coronavirus and many challenges, so we don’t need to exaggerate the current differences,” he said.
‘Coup against the constitution’
Sudanese legal expert Mohamed Abdul Salam told MEE that he considered the decree a constitutional violation, as it was based on an amendment to the constitutional declaration governing the transition period.
The professor of law at the University of Khartoum stressed that the modification of the constitutional declaration was an exclusive right of the legislative assembly that has not yet been formed due to political differences.
“Unless the CTF reforms and strongly supports civil government and democratic transformation, the coup will become a reality. ‘
– Alhaj Warrag, Sudanese political analyst
“This is a real violation and a blow against the constitution because the Sovereign Council, as well as the Council of Ministers and the rebels, have no right to change the constitution, he said.
“The only body that has this right does not exist until now and this is one of the main crises of this transition.
“Unless the legislative assembly is formed, the political and constitutional fragility and violations will continue.”
Alhaj Warrag, a Sudanese political analyst, believes the move is part of a conspiracy between some of the military generals and former state supporters of political Islam to remove Hamdok from the scene.
“They are playing the same game as dictators everywhere, they are intentionally creating many political and economic problems to pave the way for protests and then a coup against civilians in the transitional government,” he said.
“Unless the FFC reforms itself and strongly supports civil government and democratic transformation, the coup will become a reality.
“Regardless of the weak performance of the prime minister, or the entire Council of Ministers, they symbolically represent the rights of civilians to participate in the transition period and help shape the future.”
