After differences that prevented reaching recommendations at the end of the reform and integration workshop in the security and military sector, which concluded its work last Wednesday, the most important of which - according to sources - is the dispute over the timing of the integration of the Rapid Support Forces into the army, the spokesman for the political process in Sudan announced that the parties to the framework agreement for the political process agreed on a period of 5 days, during which efforts to resolve controversial issues that prevented the signing of that agreement, which was scheduled for Saturday, will be redoubled.
Regarding the expectations of the next deadline, journalist and political analyst Taher Al-Mu'tasim said – in his interview with the program "Beyond the News" (2023/4/1) – that the sixth of April will not be the end of the final agreement, due to the fact that the dispute over the integration and modernization of rapid support and its inclusion in the Sudanese Armed Forces has not yet been resolved between the two parties, indicating that the 5-day deadline was reached based on specific data, but it is not expected to be sufficient to reach a final solution.
Regarding the reasons for the disagreement between the Sudanese parties, he explained that the rapid support in the recent period distanced itself from the civilian democratic transition, and confirmed its exit as a military institution from the political process, and is paying the price for its insistence on this matter, as the army believes that it is bidding on it in positions related to democratic transition.
Political disagreement
Regarding the dispute within the military component, journalist and political analyst Al-Nour Ahmed Al-Nour said that its basis is political between the two leaderships, and it is not related to technical differences related to merger only, pointing out that the specified deadline needs to issue a political decision within which to resolve the dispute between them, and this decision can be reached if there is political will instead of the crisis of confidence planted between the two parties.
He also explained that the reason for the disagreement between the two parties is due to the fact that the rapid support sided with the Alliance of Freedom and Change Forces, and became part of it, while the army views this alliance with suspicion, given that some of its parties openly call for the dismantling of the Sudanese army, and that it be replaced by the rapid support, and serve as the nucleus of the national national army, indicating that it is a race towards political alliances in the next stage.
It is noteworthy that the decision to postpone the signing of the final agreement was taken unanimously, in a meeting held at the Presidential Palace, in which army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and the rest of the civilian parties to the political process, and the tripartite mechanism facilitating it, consisting of the African Union, the IGAD and the United Nations, participated.