On 5 July 2019 Sudanese protest leaders and opposition parties agreed on a phoney power sharing deal with the military junta that is utterly opposed to the formation of a civilian government. The Transitional Military Council (TMC) which currently rules Sudan has sought to undermine the resistance movement with months of drawn out, deadlocked negotiations in the hope that anger and energy would dissipate and the Sudanese masses woud leave the streets. When this hasn’t worked they have unleashed a rein of terror using killings, rape, torture and beatings to physically remove people. The reason being that the movement has begun to seriously challenge decades of sectarian divisions, racism and women’s oppression and has the potential to develop into an anti-imperialist struggle. This is a major challenge to the status, power and privilege of the military leaders and their backers in the region and further afield in Britain and the US. There can be no power sharing with such reactionary forces – a cabal of mass murderers and war mongers: their interests are completely opposed to that of the Sudanese working class.
Payton Knopf, an adviser to the Africa program at the United States Institute of Peace said of the deal, ‘There is no indication that this meaningfully gives control over resources, decision-making or, crucially, the security services to civilians. It essentially just gives time and space for the military and Hemeti [commander of the Rapid Support Forces and de facto leader of Sudan] to further consolidate their power.’
The deal includes the setting up of a joint Sovereign Council. The military will run the council for the first 21 months and civilians will then supposedly run it for the last 18 months, after which elections are due to be held. The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) brokered the deal on behalf of protestors and are misleadingly calling it a victory. The FFC is an umbrella organisation that includes opposition parties, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), who have spearheaded the protests, the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of armed resistance groups. There are mixed messages from the SPA leadership. In the wake of the 3 June massacre, Sara Abdelgalil, a spokeswoman for the SPA said, ‘What’s next is civil disobedience and a strike. There will be no more negotiations.’ On the day the deal was agreed, the SPA stated, ‘Today, our revolution has won and our victory shines.’ This is far from the truth. Rapid Support Forces (RSF – paramilitaries directed by the military government) still occupy Sudanese towns and the capital, Khartoum. This is a warning to any who wish to challenge the TMC, particularly targeting women to reverse the central role they have played in the protests. RSF paramilitaries raided a youth centre in El-Souk, beating up three young people. On 14 July residents of the town protested and demanded that the RSF leave. They responded by shooting and killing one person and wounding several others.
The SCP has major criticisms of the power-sharing agreement. They have rejected any involvement in the Sovereign Council of current members of the TMC. They have also rejected the draft Constitutional Document, stating that it ‘consecrates the counterrevolution’. The constitution includes an article on political immunity for members of the sovereign council. The SCP stated that the draft maintains laws that restrict freedoms and keeps intact repressive institutions including the RSF. The SCP also spoke out against the constitution because it upholds reactionary international and regional agreements made by Bashir’s government, in particular, the continuation of participation in the war on Yemen. Other members of the opposition have labelled this principled position as ‘destructive behaviour’. A spokesperson of the SPA twisted and turned saying concerns are legitimate but, ‘unity is our lifesaver for the continuation of our resistance.’ In other words, don’t mention the disastrous war on Yemen. The SCP is a necessary thorn in the side of the FFC. The anti-imperialist stance they are taking needs to be seized upon and brought into the wider struggle.
The war on Yemen, arms sales, immigration control, ‘counterterrorism’ operations, oil and rivalry with China have all shaped the role played by imperialism and its allies in relation to Sudan. In 2016, China accounted for 94% of Sudan’s and 100% South Sudan’s crude oil exports. This explains the manoeuvres by Britain and the US to balkanise Sudan into North, South and West (Darfur) to make it more difficult for China to get Sudan’s oil.
The US has a long history of working with military plotters opposed to Bashir. Saudi Arabia and UAE have pledged $3bn worth of aid to Sudan because they want to keep them in the war on Yemen. Despite an EU arms embargo on Sudan, the coalition fighting in Yemen has received arms licenses worth £860m from the British state. There are an estimated 14,000 Sudanese troops fighting in Yemen, without them there will be no one to fire the weapons sold by British arms companies. Britain has a vested interest in the continuation of the war on Yemen and Sudan’s sustained involvement. Hemeti has stated, ‘We are sticking to our commitments to the coalition and will keep our forces until the alliance achieves its objectives.’ For Egypt, support for the TMC is to try and ensure there is no successful movement to depose a military junta in a country on its doorstep. This could inspire increased resistance in Egypt to Sisi’s military rule.
Hemeti and Burhan received EU envoy, Pekka Havista, on 12 July. He described his meeting with them as constructive and fruitful. He commended the Sovereign Council deal claiming that it marks the transition to civilian rule and confirming closer collaboration between the EU and Sudan in the coming period. Sudan’s collaboration with the EU includes an agreement dating back to 2015 and worth $200m from the EU to use Hemeti’s militia to stop African migrants getting through Sudan to Libya and then on to Europe. The EU wants more of the same.
Imperialist hands off Sudan!
Mark Moncada
