Sudanese Civil Forces and Code of Building United Front

By: Dr. Al-Shafie Khader Saeed

Over the past period, the Sudanese political arena witnessed important, meaningful and significant events, including events that fall within the category of rejecting war and calling for it to stop, such as the visit of the Civil Democratic Forces Coordination (Taqaddum) to Cairo and its meeting with the Egyptian leadership, the Arab League and a number of Sudanese entities and groups, and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) – The Central Council meetings in Cairo, and the inauguration of new civil political blocs, such as the National Choice Coordination (Takhati) and joint political meetings, bilateral and tripartite, between a number of parties and organizations. Among them are also events whose heroes see support for the Sudanese army and its continuation of the fight until it is victorious over the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, such as the inauguration of the National Forces Coordination in Port Sudan and the inauguration of the Sudanese Popular Front in Cairo.
The statements and press statements issued by these meetings and events included a number of important issues directly related to what is happening today in Sudan, which require stopping and discussing them as long as they are pushed to the surface of the political movement. Among these issues: reiterating the call to build the broadest civil front against the war. We praise the recent UN Security Council resolution calling on the parties to the fighting for a humanitarian cessation of hostilities during the holy month of Ramadan, and calling on the international community to activate the mechanisms for implementing this resolution. The priority now is to address the humanitarian crisis and the death threat to the people of Sudan due to famine and lack of medicine, and to press to open safe corridors to deliver humanitarian aid towards alleviating the suffering of Sudanese refugees.
The war of April 15 last year is the greatest crime committed against our people, and both parties bear the responsibility for preparing for it, igniting it, and continuing it, and the responsibility for insulting the dignity of the defenseless people and depriving them of their lives and property, which makes them partners in the war crime that will not be subject to the statute of limitations or a political settlement, and that the two partners are not morally and legally qualified. For them to be part of any upcoming political project, it is necessary to hold them accountable and not allow them to escape punishment. The following should be carried out: Rejecting external interventions that impose the restoration of partnership with the military, and working to establish a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue to restore the civil-democratic path; Integrating the role of political parties with the roles of civil society organizations and trade union organizations, as well as confronting the replacement of the role of any of them with the other. Welcoming the formation of the high-level African mechanism and the new special envoy of the United States of America to Sudan, praising the initiatives undertaken by countries of the world and the region in the platforms of Jeddah, Manama and IGAD, and calling for the unification of these platforms in one comprehensive political process that excludes only the National Congress Party and its facades. No political process will begin until the rebel militia is eliminated.
The National Forces Coordination is heading to sign a political pact with the leadership of the Sudanese army… and other issues. It is clear that some of these issues increase the complexity of the current situation, and some of them contradict or are inconsistent with others in a reflection of the conflict of visions and the intensification of conflicts between the active groups or generating these issues. As we mentioned above, all of these issues require attention, review, and discussion, which is what we will do and report successively in our upcoming articles. As for today’s article, we will devote it to discussing the call to build the broadest civil front against the war.
Of course, this call is repeated and constant in all meetings of civil forces that reject the war, but so far it has not been fulfilled. We have discussed the reasons for this in several previous articles, in which we pointed out that the Sudanese civil forces are unable, so far, to decipher the code of achieving their unity as a first step to deciphering how to stop this war. A second important and disturbing point at the same time is what was stated in the statement of the FFC after their last meeting in Cairo, about “continuing to work seriously to hold the founding conference of Taqaddum to culminate the efforts that have been made during the past period and strengthen the foundations of joint work within Taqaddum and strengthen its efforts to stop the war and re-establish the Sudanese state.” It appears from this paragraph that the idea of the founding conference of FFC and the Taqaddum forces is that it is a conference exclusively for the current Taqaddum components, while what we thought, or hoped for, was that the conference would be the culmination of an endeavor that achieves the unity of all civil forces, inside and outside Taqaddum, so Taqaddum is presented as essential part of these forces, but not all.
The Sudanese civil forces calling for an end to the war are numerous in terms of their formations and their organization into blocs and alliances, and we do not accept questioning the patriotism of any of these blocs and organizations as long as they all adhere to a position that rejects the war, but without their unity, or integrated coordination among them, their activities will remain mere media chatter, and will open the door to settlements that will reproduce the crisis. We have also repeatedly said that calling for an end to the war does not mean stabbing the Sudanese army in the back or allowing it to be defeated and destroyed, just as it does not mean supporting the RSF and their victory in this war. Rather, it means, quite simply, rejecting the Sudanese killing his Sudanese brother and rejecting the destruction of the homeland, and it means rejecting war. Absolutely in all parts of the country, and refusing to let fighting be an alternative to dialogue and negotiation to resolve political and social differences and crises, no matter how severe and complex they may be.
On the other hand, joint action against war does not require unity or organizational dissolution among groups
However, based on the unified position against the war, it requires consensus on adhering to a purely Sudanese initiative to the political process after the war stops, and it also requires a common understanding of dealing with the international and regional community. Any effort to unite the Sudanese civil forces and gather them in one platform, it is necessary that it be based on the principles of transparency, that everyone participates in the preparation, that the endeavor be Sudanese, free of any external interference, that all its stages be self-funded, and that its main agenda includes consensus on the vision of how to stop the war, as well as addressing the current human tragedy and the shape of the political process.

Al-Quds of London
March 17, 2024