1st Lt. (Rtd.) Mohamed Siddiq Ibrahim: He doesn’t care which side of the country he was killed on (1-2)

Abdullah Ali Ibrahim

Large groups of Sudanese were horrified by the killing of the 1st. Lt.(Rtd) Mohamed Siddiq Ibrahim, by the “Rapid Support RSF on May 18, at the Jelei Refinery north of Khartoum. People were shocked by the video broadcast by the elements that killed him, in which he surrounded them and was slapped by them. The slap was because he did not answer their question about how he found them and captured them. They expected a word of satisfaction from him about them. But he said, “In which side?” and his phrase became a hashtag that dominated the media.
This is not the first time that Siddiq has issued a brave certainty in the face of instability with a phrase that spreads like wildfire in the dry grass, as we will see.
The killing of Siddiq was terrifying for those on the side of the armed forces for which he sacrificed, and those on the side of the “RSF or in between, including Islamists. This is because the officer’s biography since his name shone in the December 2018 revolution intersected with all these sects, and none of them could help but collude in a phase of his short, eventful biography.
He was the icon of the revolution against the “Salvation State” regime and its army, including the “Rapid Support Forces RSF and was martyred in the ranks of the army against the “Rapid Support Forces RSF .
He exhausted all positions. Siddiq’s star shone on the third day of the sit-in of the movement against the rule of the ousted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir (1989-2019) in front of the General Command of the Army in Khartoum on April 9, 2019. He went out with a few officers to prevent the attack on the protesters who were being awaited by the army and the “RSF to end their mobilization by any means. They achieved this on a night in Ramadan before Eid (June 2, 2019), so they terrorized and killed them in front of the gates of the General Command. Siddiq stood in the middle of the terrifying crowd who hoped that his sit-in would bring out someone from the army who would tip the balance of power in his favor, to be the one who constitutes the majority.
In his speech, Siddiq appealed to his brothers in the SAF to come out to uphold the word of truth and stand with the people. The chants around him rose to the sky, “Sudan up up, Sudan up. You take it (i.e. take the reins of power)”, to which Siddiq replied that they did not come out to take power, but to protect the protesters, and to remain in their stand until the regime falls. He used the phrase that immortalized him in the memory of the revolution, “The delicate one criticizes”, from the literature of Sudanese chivalry.
That is, if the regime finds weakness in us, it will take advantage of it and eliminate us, but no way. Of course, the army was not happy with Siddiq’s “rebellion”.
The victory of the revolution on April 19, 2019 did not prevent him from being referred to retirement in February 2020, in a list that included other officers who stood with the protesters in one way or another.
The “Resistance Committees” responded to this action against Siddiq with a “return the favor” procession that submitted a memorandum to the Sovereignty Council TSC demanding the reform of the armed forces and the return of Siddiq and his comrades to their positions in it. The SAF justified its decision against Siddiq in a statement in which it said that he had violated the laws and regulations of service in the armed forces. It mentioned his assault on police officers at their station in the popular neighborhood of Haj Youssef, where he lives. Siddiq had ordered a bus driver to go to the police station to file a report against him for unjustifiably raising the ticket price.
When the police did not accept his report, or procrastinated, he clashed with them, so they took him to the General Command after it became clear to them that he was one of their members. In an interview to (Al Jazeera )Siddiq said that Lt.Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan had decided to return him after he provoked them to cover the “Returning the Favor” procession with revolutionary blood, until the Security and Defense Council decided to open an investigation into the circumstances.
He added that the deep state of salvation, which still has influence, was behind his referral to retirement. He added that Al-Burhan apologized to him for the measure taken against him, because he did not see the list of referrals until after it was issued.
He offered him a return to service. Mohamed denounced him for not knowing about his referral to retirement, as he is the one who does not know anything in the army without his knowledge as commander-in-chief, and he rejected the offer.
No one has heard from Sadiq since his retirement and the turmoil of the revolution that ended with the coup against its transitional government on October 25, 2022, and the outbreak of war between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15, 2023. But he appeared in a video on December 2, 2023, announcing from his hometown of Shendi in River Nile State his decision to mobilize alongside the armed forces, after he failed to return to it as a result of the mobilization of retired officers, which it itself called for to strengthen its ranks. He said that after the outbreak of the war, he contacted the Seventh Division in the General Command to absorb him as an officer in the war service, but they turned him back because the matter no longer required it, and they would summon him whenever they agreed.
Then he responded to the army’s call for its retired officers to return to service. He reported to his 9th Parachute Corps unit at Wadi Saydna base, where he waited 90 days, after which they informed him that the General Command did not agree to send him down in a column, while they had authorized dozens of others. He got angry and told the head of a division in the command that “peace be upon the homeland if you have patriotic certificates to distribute by name to the people.”
He said that “the dead is dead, and we are the children of tonight,” so he considered himself since the second of December 2024 to be mobilized within the popular resistance forces as a Sudanese man, before being an officer. He seemed to be in disagreement with the army in its commitment to defending its positions and refraining from attacking the “Rapid Support RSF positions. He said that either the army was attacking men or “I swear to Allah the national forces would emerge from every corner of the country, either they raised the flag of Sudan or fell as martyrs.
He said that the call for “No to War” was a useless call, because it did not agree on where the right is in this war, and where the wrong is. He added that urging its people to the army to sit down to negotiate is not appropriate, and the money is looted by the “Rapid Support RSF ” and the women are prisoners. He addressed Burhan with some warning, saying that if he did not change his plan by January 1, 2024 to attack the “Rapid Support Forces RSF (in contrast to the defense plan followed) in every region in Sudan, he would be the first to leave Shendi to attack the Jelei refinery, which is occupied by the “Rapid Support Forces RSF.
He is ready. If the armed forces go out to attack on January 1, he will be with them, and if they sit back, he will not be one of those who sit back. And the day of January 1 will come and people will see his decision, “By Allah if I were left alone, Mohamed Siddiq – and I seek refuge in Allah from saying “I” – I would leave Shendi and attack the refinery.” He returned to his favorite phrase, “And thinner will torne.” It is not difficult to imagine the confusion that Siddiq’s death caused in the discourse of the ongoing war.
A crosser of the banks like him shakes its guardians between standing with the army or standing against it, so as not to say with the “Rapid Support Forces RSF Few writers have mentioned his two exploits. Those who were with the army on the war side mentioned his martyrdom at the hands of the “Rapid Support RSF .while those who opposed the SAF ignored even mentioning his support for the revolution that they attribute to themselves, because mentioning it does not square with his death in the ranks of the SAF
. And there are those who gave free rein to stitching the two feats together, taking risks however they agree.

And we continue