#SudanUprising briefing May 2021: developments, issues and solutions
The killing of two protesters leads to the resignation of a civilian from the ruling Sovereign Council
Summary
Two young men - Osman Ahmed and Muddathir al-Mukhtar – were shot dead and 37 were wounded after army forces dispersed protesters in Khartoum. The death triggered the resignation of ruling Sovereign Council member Aisha Musa. In her resignation speech, Musa tearfully accused the military-dominated government of ignoring civilians, alongside highlighting other institutional issues within Sudan’s executive bodies.
Other key issues highlighted in this briefing include the view that Sudan’s civilian politicians are weak and allegations that the Tamkeen (Empowerment Removal Committee) set up to claw back assets from former President Omar al-Bashir and his associates applies selective justice.
The solutions proposed include inclusive political participation supported by domestic and international actors, an independent Tamkeen committee, alongside the demands from Aisha Musa’s resignation letter.
Developments
Deadly protest dispersal
Two young men were shot dead and 37 were wounded after army forces dispersed – with live bullets - a group of people commemorating the June 3 2019 Khartoum Massacre (Multiple sources, 12 May). The young men were named as Osman Ahmed and Muddathir al-Mukhtar (Sudan Tribune, 13 May).
Attorney general Tajelsir al-Hibr said the injuries of the two killed protesters “may indicate that the shooting was intentional” (Human Rights Watch, 19 May). However, in a statement, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) said that “no instructions were issued to the forces protecting the army command to use live ammunition against the people” (Radio Dabanga, 12 May).
Witness report (Human Rights Watch, 19 May)
HRW reported from nine witnesses who alleged the military’s “heavy-handed response” in using “excessive and lethal force against peaceful protesters”. Soldiers reportedly formed “cordons” around the crowd, “which hindered their dispersal, allowing for only a narrow exit”, before allegedly encircled the protesters, making it hard for them to leave, then “apparently unprovoked and without warning” starting to beat them. One protester said they saw a soldier shooting indiscriminately “at a direct level toward people, not in the air…like he did not care where the bullet would hit”.
Suspects arrested
Attorney general Tajelsir al-Hibr consequently confirmed that the Public Prosecution Office opened two lawsuits against the military members involved (Sudan Tribune, 13 May). Minister of Defence Lt Gen Yassin Ibrahim expressed the military’s regret for what happened and delivered condolences from the army’s leadership for the nation’s martyrs. SAF also announced that a committee was formed to investigate who ordered the shooting, expressing full cooperation with judicial authorities (Radio Dabanga, 13 May).
Then, Al-Hibr announced the arrest of seven Sudanese military personnel accused, alongside 92 other suspects, after the Chairman of the Sovereign Council Lt. Gen. Abdulfattah al-Burhan, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the SAF, handed over the Military Investigation Committee’s report on the dispersal to al-Hibr (Sudan Tribune, 16 May).
Civil society condemns the killings
Several Sudanese political parties and organisations condemned the killing of the two young protestors. The president of the Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Federation, Hashem Matar, announced that he will boycott the Paris Conference. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sudanese Congress Party both announced the withdrawal of their leaders from the Transitional Partners Council (TPC), with the latter withdrawing two ministers from the government (Radio Dabanga, 13 May).
The National Umma Party said: “the security forces still do not comprehend the requirements of the democratic transformation. They need to be restructured in a way so that they contribute to the glorious revolution, preserve public rights and freedoms, and apply the law to the fullest”. The Communist Party of Sudan demanded the resignation of the government, calling for a “fully civilian government representing the forces of the revolution” (Radio Dabanga, 13 May).
Furthermore, the Alliance of Civil Society Forces called for the resignation of all the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) members from the Sovereign Council, alongside requesting that Prime Minister Hamdok dismisses the heads of the relevant security and executive agencies, amend the existing legislation and adopt a new law for the security apparatus that protects public freedoms (Sudan Tribune, 16 May).
Aisha Musa resigns and explains why
Consequently, Sovereign Council member Aisha Musa resigned in protest against the killings. Her decision was praised by the Alliance of Civil Society Forces (ACSF) in Sudan, who considered it to be an expression of the rejection of "all forms of killing and oppression that our people are facing by the transitional power structures” (Multiple sources, 16 May).
In a tearful speech explaining her resignation, Musa, one of only two women in the ruling Sovereign Council, accused the military-dominated transitional government of ignoring civilian voices. "The civilian component in the sovereign (council) and at all levels of government has become just a logistical executive body that does not participate in decision-making," Aisha Musa said. "Rather it only stamps the approval of pre-prepared decisions," she added (Multiple sources, 23 May).
2. Key issues
Incompetent civilian politicians
According to veteran journalist Osman Mirghani, the editor-in-chief of al-Tayar newspaper, Sudan’s democratic transition is threatened by the mistakes of “weak” civilian politicians with “limited personal capacity”, which will “enable the military to step into the gap they are creating” (Radio France Internationale, 23 April).
Mirghani alleges the politicians are “ruling as employees, not leaders”, and lack “a true vision of what needs to be done…a strategic approach and plan, and [are incapable] of ruling,” adding that “when the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance signed their declaration, they were looking to remove the dictatorship. What will happen the day after was not considered.”
2. Institutional issues within executive bodies
In the speech explaining her resignation from the ruling Sovereign Council, Aisha Musa highlighted several institutional issues within Sudanese executive bodies, claiming that her viewpoints were ignored as the military component of the government exceeded its constitutional powers. Musa said: “the weakness of state institutions led to the extension of insecurity and the inability to regulate and monitor the military forces” (Sudan Tribune, 23 May).
Alongside accusing transitional authorities of delaying the formation of the Legislative Council, the third body constituted in the power-sharing agreement alongside the Sovereignty Council and the Cabinet (Multiple sources, 23 May), Musa also criticised the Transitional Partners Council, saying it “diminished the joint meetings of the cabinet and Sovereign Council and the ruling coalition,” leading to the “concealment of efforts to form the transitional parliament,” which “breached the Constitutional Document without logical justifications” (Sudan Tribune, 23 May).
3. Does the Tamkeen committee apply selective justice?
Reuters (6 April) reported on criticism that the Tamkeen (Empowerment Removal Committee), “the group set up to claw back assets from ousted President Omar al-Bashir and his associates” and “aims to purge public bodies of al-Bashir loyalists,” applies “selective justice”, citing a protest triggered by the sacking of 7,000 from the civil service “without proper explanation or appeal process.”
Some critics reportedly view the committee as a means for easy political point scoring by a government struggling to manage an economic crisis, while others are concerned about what they see as a shaky legal framework, add Reuters. Such criticisms highlighted may shed light on the resignation of attorney general Tajelsir al-Hibr over the decisions of the committee (Multiple sources, 18 May), and a member of the committee Orwa Alsadig has been sued by the head of the committee (and state), Lt. Gen. Abdulfattah al-Burhan (Global Voices, 4 March).
3. Solutions
Inclusive participation (International Politics and Society, 9 April)
Philipp Jahn of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Gerrit Kurtz of the German Council on Foreign Relations call for Sudan’s “extremely volatile political transition” to be supported via an inclusive political process whereby “participation, dialogue and political organisation cannot be limited to negotiating access to institutions within elites.”
Arguing that the emergence of stable and legitimate elected government requires properly functioning competition among political parties, the authors propose the government establishes a state-funded independently controlled mechanism to strengthen political party development, potentially funded from the profits of enterprises that the Finance Ministry takes from security forces or Sudan’s established business families, which the elected government may transform into a permanent form of democratically secured party funding.
The authors also suggest international actors support training courses and projects for self-organisation and participation down to the constituency level, with incentives for participation, dialogue and debate “needing to be essential components of international cooperation with Sudan”.
Independent Tamkeen committee
Warning of a lack of due process and the shaky legal framework of the Tamkeen committee, Mohamed Abdelsalam, dean of the University of Khartoum law school, said “a better approach would be to establish a group of independent commissioners, rather than politicians, able to apply the law equally to every individual..[as] the current practice can be labelled as selective justice” (Reuters, 6 April).
Demands from Aisha Musa’s resignation letter (Radio Dabanga, 23 May)
In the letter explaining her resignation from the ruling Sovereign Council, Aisha Musa called for arms controls, restructuring the security apparatus, establishing a parliament “as a basic necessity” and the transfer of power to civilians “as mandated by the Constitutional Document”.