At the centre of the ongoing attacks against the people in Sudan is the Temporary Sovereignty Council, which has held power since the second military coup in October 2021. The president and vice-president, based on two separate centres of power of the ruling junta and united only against the people, started clashing when they could not maintain their reconciliation. The clashes that started on 15 April continue to spread.
The Sudanese people, organised as the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, were on the verge of overthrowing the reactionary al-Bashir dictatorship in the spring of 2019. It was the coup d’état of 11 April 2019 that saved the order and the dictatorship, along with its pillars, from the hands of the people, whose 4-month-long demonstrations turned into an uprising, by putting al-Bashir to the jail. The two leaders of the coup were General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hamideti), commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They set up a Military Temporary Council and called on the people to share power. Mostly the right wing of the Freedom and Change forces fell for this trick. A military-civilian mixed Temporary Sovereignty Council was formed, led by Burhan.
The Popular Resistance Committees joined hands with the trade unions and did not recognise this agreement. The agreement, whose deceptive nature was quickly exposed, did not last long. In October 2021, the military junta, which renewed the Provisional Sovereignty Council by expelling the civilians with a new coup d’état, started to attack the people who did not accept the agreement again.
The two rulers of the Council, Burhan and Hamideti, hand in hand, continued the “Bashir without Bashir order”.
Burhan was Bashir’s army commander and attacked the people on his orders. Hamideti was the leader of al-Bashir’s militia, the Janjawids. He is an enemy of the people who attacked the people to suppress demonstrations.
When Burhan negotiated with the popular forces, he said that the RSF would join the army. This did not happen, but Hamideti interpreted it as a “liquidation” and there was trouble between the two reactionary commanders.
In Sudan many industries and companies are controlled by the army. Especially the production and marketing of oil and gold. Hamideti holds the key points of this dark economic activity. The two commanders, who agree on the confiscation of the people’s wealth, are at odds over the sharing of the wealth and the incorporation of the RSF into the army.
In the end, the dispute was resolved at gunpoint. The showdown between the reactionaries in Sudan has begun. However the conflict develops, it is certain that neither side will be good for the Sudanese people.
The parties say they will not compromise and the fighting has spread to other towns in the country. The air force is bombing RSF bases. The RSF is attacking Khartoum airport and the Presidential Palace.
The United Nations, the imperialists and the regional reactionaries advise the parties to show restraint and call on them to “reach a national agreement”.
The attitude of the people, who have suffered many casualties in the clashes, will be decisive.
It is imperative for the future of Sudan that the people and the part of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which were divided and fragmented during the two coups, especially the Popular Resistance Committees, do not split this time and support one of the two reactionary military chiefs. The slightest expectations about the junta and the criminal gangs have fatal consequences. The dismantling of the juntas and the gangs of the RSF and the initiative of the people to take up arms, reorganise the army as a people’s army and establish popular sovereignty is the only way forward for Sudan.
The Sudanese people, after two coups, can no longer accept as a solution the victory of one of the two reactionary gangs or their reconciliation to continue the repression and coercion of the people. Large sections of the people have realised through their own experience that it is impossible to open the road to popular power by compromising with the junta chiefs and militia gangs.
The slogan of the resisting people was “No negotiations, no compromises, no partnership!” A thousand times true.
Down with Sudanese reaction!
Long live the people’s dominance!
International Conference of Marxist Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML)
Coordination Committee