Sudanese Civil Forces Call for Political Process and End to War
The Freedom and Change Alliance – Central Council excludes the National Congress Party from the political process, demanding its classification as a terrorist organization
The Freedom and Change Alliance – Central Council in Sudan called for launching a political process to immediately stop the war and address the humanitarian catastrophe resulting from it.
The alliance, which includes the Sudanese Professionals Association, the National Consensus Forces, the Sudan Call Forces, and the Unionist Gathering, held a two-day meeting in Cairo, Egypt, aimed at ending the conflict between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces and restoring civilian rule in the country.
The alliance presented in the final statement of the meeting a “vision to end the war and establish and rebuild the new Sudanese state.”
This meeting marked the first time that the leaders of the Freedom and Change Alliance and its institutions have met in person since the beginning of the war on April 15th.
During the meeting, the alliance emphasized the “need to launch a political process that leads to an immediate cessation of the war and effective response to resolving the humanitarian disaster resulting from the war, and to protect civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law, and to investigate and hold accountable all parties involved in serious violations.”
The alliance requested that the political process include broad participation of Sudanese civil forces supporting an immediate end to the war and a comprehensive transition to civilian democracy, but it does not include the National Congress Party, which the alliance called to classify as a terrorist organization due to its crimes committed in Sudan.
The alliance approved during the meeting the political vision to end the war and establish the new Sudanese state through a new developmental project that achieves sustainable peace, establishes a democratic civil system respecting Sudan’s diversity, improves its administration, and builds a unified professional national army free from politics and subject to civilian authority.
The meeting praised the international and regional role working to facilitate the political process according to the will of Sudanese parties, and stressed the necessity of integrating the Saudi-American initiative with the roadmap of the African Union, the IGAD, and the decisions of the Sudan’s neighboring countries’ conference and the efforts of the regional and international community aiming to stop the war, to become one process coordinated between the mediators and the Sudanese parties.
The Freedom and Change Alliance condemned the grave human rights violations resulting from the war, such as killings, looting, robbery, house occupation, airstrikes, and arbitrary arrests of activists, and called for an immediate cessation of all types of violations and an independent investigation to identify the violators and hold them accountable, with effective mechanisms to seek justice for the victims and compensate the affected.
The alliance warned that the continuation of the war threatens to dismantle the social fabric and collapse the national economy, impacting the cohesion of the Sudanese state and the unity of its territory, and the negative effects will extend to the regional and international Sudan’s surroundings.
The alliance reaffirmed its determination to end the war, preserve the unity of the people and the land, uphold state sovereignty, and build a citizenship state without discrimination and establish a democratic system.
It is worth noting that Yasser al-Atta, a member of the Sovereignty Council, Deputy Chief of the Sudanese Army, accused the Freedom and Change Alliance – Central Council of allying with the Rapid Support Forces, stating that there is “no neutrality in the battle fought by the army against the militias.”
Yasir Arman, the spokesperson for the Freedom and Change Alliance, responded to these accusations in a press statement, saying that the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemeti,” was a supporter of the Framework Agreement, and he was enthusiastic about a unified Sudanese army.
Arman also accused the regime of Omar al-Bashir of transferring the war to other areas and turning it into a civil war, taking advantage of the absence of state institutions. He stated that “the remnants of the former regime are powerful and possess a strong presence and influence in all centers of the Sudanese state.”
In the same context, the leaders of the Freedom and Change Alliance – Democratic Bloc called for “forming a broad national front to unify the political discourse and end the war” during a press conference in Cairo on Tuesday. The Democratic Bloc held its conference in Cairo and was attended by armed movements and civil forces affiliated with it, including the Justice and Equality Movement led by Jibril Ibrahim and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Arko Minawi, as well as the Original Unionist Party led by Jafar al-Mirghani and the Independent Columns Coordination Council for East Sudan led by tribal leader Al-Bajj Muhammad Al-Amin Turki.
The chairman of the Democratic Bloc, Jafar al-Mirghani, stated that “Sudan is in urgent need of unifying the political discourse for the political solution to the war crisis,” emphasizing the importance of “forming a national front that supports international and regional efforts to stop the war.”
For three months now, Sudan has been caught in a war that erupted on April 15th after a period of tension between the army and the Rapid Support Forces over disputes regarding integration into the armed forces.
Violent and wide-ranging clashes have continued between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in various areas of Sudan, with most of the violence concentrated in the capital Khartoum, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties and injuries.
The war has so far resulted in the death of at least 3,900 people, according to the non-governmental organization ACLED, and has displaced over three million people, both internally and externally.
