To not miss any African news, subscribe to the newsletter of “World Africa” from this link. Every Saturday at 6 a.m., find a week of news and debates covered by the editorial staff of the “World Africa”.
Six months after General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane’s coup, the Islamist parties in Sudan are advancing their pawns. With the country’s economy teetering on the brink, protests against military rule continuing and no real government having been formed despite promises from the junta, they announced on Monday (April 18) the formation of a new alliance, the Great Islamic Current, marking their official return to the political scene
For the occasion, hundreds of members of Islamist organizations met in a park in Khartoum at the time of the breaking of the fast and in memory of the battle of Badr, the first victory of the supporters of Muhammad, in October 623. Many supporters of former dictator Omar Al-Bashir, overthrown in 2019 after thirty years of rule, thronged the crowd of white galabiyyas that evening.
According to Amin Hassan Omer, one of the figures of the Sudanese Islamist movement, close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the objective of the new coalition is to “reviving the country in religion” and of “structuring the various Islamist groups” in view of the elections promised by the military in 2024.
The creation of the Great Islamic Current coincided with the release, on April 8, of thirteen executives of the National Congress Party (NCP) – the formation in power under the old regime –, acquitted by the courts after being accused of attack to the constitutional order, terrorist financing and the attempted assassination of former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, in March 2020. The most eminent of them, Ibrahim Ghandour, last foreign minister of Omar Al- Bachir, has since appeared on television to show his support for the coup.
A large network of influential personalities
The general “Bourhane is looking for a political base while most parties are turning their backs on him. He doesn’t really have a choice. He needs support from within to form a front civilian government in order to unfreeze international aid. The deal with the Islamists is simple: they get you out of prison, you get your money back and support me politically”estimates the professor of sociology Munzoul Assal, one of the deans of the university of Khartoum, who has just resigned from his functions to protest against the nomination of faithful of the power at the head of the universities.
You have 58.62% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.