{"id":59129,"date":"2025-12-25T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=59129"},"modified":"2025-12-25T02:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T23:27:12","slug":"beneath-the-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/25\/beneath-the-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"Beneath the Surface\u2026!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al-Tahir Satti<\/strong><\/p>\n

The briefing delivered by Prime Minister Kamil Idris to the UN Security Council\u2014or let us call it his \u201cinitiative\u201d\u2014reminded me of a graduation research recommendation by students blessed with an overactive imagination. They had conducted fieldwork in remote villages, uncovered critical cases, examined random samples, and then submitted their paper to their university supervisor\u2014only to conclude with the recommendation: \u201cThe research has proven that women most vulnerable to childbirth are pregnant women.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was nothing new in the prime minister\u2019s briefing or initiative, despite prior promises of presenting an \u201cimportant initiative.\u201d Advisers had described it as complementary to the roadmap the government had submitted nearly a year ago to the United Nations, the African Union, the Arab League, and the Jeddah Platform mediators. Yet the prime minister\u2019s address failed to add a single new sentence to that roadmap.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire; the withdrawal of the Rapid Support Forces from areas they occupy; facilitating the return of displaced persons; disarming the RSF; reintegration and rehabilitation of former fighters into society; a Sudanese\u2013Sudanese dialogue to agree on democracy; and the pursuit of justice and comprehensive reconciliation\u2014this is essentially the summary of the briefing (the \u201cinitiative\u201d), wrapped in extensive rhetoric and verbosity. So what, exactly, is new?<\/p>\n

Unless Sudan\u2019s battered people\u2014and Security Council members as well\u2014are suffering from collective amnesia, what the prime minister and his advisers called an \u201cimportant initiative\u201d is identical to the provisions agreed upon in Jeddah in May 2023, just weeks after the Dagalo family betrayed the people and the country. It is also identical to the roadmap the government itself presented to those same bodies in February.<\/p>\n

The only novelty in the prime minister\u2019s briefing and initiative lies in the language\u2014a rephrasing of the Jeddah Agreement and the roadmap. For instance, he spoke of \u201cproviding job opportunities for former fighters,\u201d meaning the Janjaweed. What the roadmap and the Jeddah Agreement termed integration\u2014absorbing the fit into the army and the unfit into civilian life\u2014despite the fact that they are, to a man and backed by their sponsor, unfit altogether.<\/p>\n

The key point is this: unless there was another, unstated objective\u2014beneath the surface\u2014to this visit, it would have been more appropriate to say that the prime minister went to New York to reaffirm Sudan\u2019s steadfast position on the peace track, rather than playing on public emotions by claiming to present an \u201cimportant initiative\u201d as if it were something new. Yes, what the prime minister told the Council was important, but it was neither surprising nor new.<\/p>\n

Notably, the prime minister\u2019s briefing made no mention of the UAE, despite the reality that the war is, in essence, being driven by the Emirates, with the Janjaweed and mercenaries merely acting as the claws of the cat. More troubling still was his response when asked about the UAE\u2019s role in Sudan\u2019s war\u2014it resembled the evasive replies of Sumoud activists when confronted by satellite channels with the same question, followed by \u201cAnd what about Dagalo?\u201d The answer was confused, weak, and lacking candor.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Cameron Hudson\u2019s briefing was forceful and explicit. He stated plainly: \u201cOver the past two years, the UAE has used its political influence across the Horn of Africa to establish a vast military air bridge transporting weapons to the militia through Chad, Libya, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Puntland region of Somalia. These weapons enhanced the militia\u2019s capabilities and enabled it to commit atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Had the prime minister\u2019s briefing matched Hudson\u2019s in clarity and strength, one could have said this trip had value\u2014in addition to the five benefits enumerated by Al-Shafi\u2018i. Unfortunately, it was a courtesy briefing toward the UAE, carefully avoiding it. Worse still, Sudan did not even request the right of reply to the accusations made by the UAE\u2019s representative. Instead, it listened and departed in silence\u2014as if even that silence had been prearranged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al-Tahir Satti The briefing delivered by Prime Minister Kamil Idris to the UN Security Council\u2014or let us call it his \u201cinitiative\u201d\u2014reminded me of a graduation research recommendation by students blessed with an overactive imagination. They had conducted fieldwork in remote villages, uncovered critical cases, examined random samples, and then submitted their paper to their university …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59130,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59129\/revisions\/59130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}