Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum
The resistance committees in the Sudanese neighborhoods and cities have created the password that toppled the regime of President Omar al-Bashir after thirty years of unilateral power, but these committees once they surfaced until they got deep state arrows.
Thousands of neighborhood committees in the capital Khartoum and the rest of the country have run the protest movement from underground from December 2018 until the overthrow of Bashir in April.
After the formation of the transitional government last September, some of the leaders of these committees appeared publicly after they were wanted for security, and some of them even died with suspicions of deliberately liquidating them.
Walid Abdel Rahman Saadabi, a prominent activist of the Khartoum Resistance Committee, was shot dead by snipers on June 9 when he was directing youths at the barricades on the first day of civil disobedience.
With the announcement of the transitional government in Sudan two months ago, the "change and service committees" formed by the resistance committees were active in carrying out their activities in the neighborhoods, but immediately faced a counter-campaign from the "dignity committees" that were active only in cyberspace.
Any citizen or any citizen subjected to any kind of harassment by the so-called resistance committees in the neighborhoods |
Addressing living committees
Local officials confronted with the help of opening reports to neighborhood committees that began to change the names of schools and hospitals and follow-up work, as happened in the martyr Ali Abdel Fattah Hospital in the suburb of Aldroshab north of Khartoum.
Federal Government Minister Yousef Adam al-Dhi was forced to issue directives in the past hours to organize the work of the change committees and the services that the Freedom and Change Forces, which led the revolutionary movement in the country, would call to manage services in neighborhoods, villages and markets.
According to Jaafar Hassan, the leader of the Coalition of Freedom and Change Forces, the decision constitutes a technical tool for the work of the change committees and the services formed by the resistance committees.
He says to the island Net that these committees, despite their independence, they are disciplined organizationally with the forces of freedom and change and constitute an indispensable back for the coalition.
However, Louay Abdel Moneim, secretary general of the National Path Party, warns of complaints from citizens about operations attributed to the resistance committees, including raids on local offices, schools, universities and hospitals and collecting fees without receipts.
"Personally, as a political activist, I received distress from a citizen in the administrative quarter in Jazeera state, stating that the resistance committees imposed fifty pounds on each flour bag."
Complex formation
In an attempt to understand the complex nature of the formation of resistance committees, Mohamed Omar Fransaoui of the Berri District Resistance Committee and the liaison office official in the Khartoum Committees Coordination Committee said that Khartoum has 1,781 committees deployed throughout the state.
The French stresses to Al Jazeera Net the existence of real committees stemming from the ground and other made from certain parts of the former regime aimed at destabilizing the civilian government and inciting youth against it, he said.
He explains that the real committees are divided into old committees formed since and before the protests of September 2013, such as the Berri Committee formed since 2008, and modern committees formed after the recent protests.
Berri, a neighborhood near central Khartoum, was an inspiring stronghold of the processions of resignation, which on April 6 turned into a sit-in in front of the army command.
deep country
Abdullah Awad, a member of the General Coordination of Resistance Committees in the Center and the states and a leader in the professional grouping, one of the most prominent components of the forces of freedom and change, accuses the deep state, which he says is still active, of organizing campaigns targeting the resistance committees.
Awad, who spoke to Al Jazeera Net when he was trying to contain protests in Khartoum neighborhoods over the death of a Sudanese policeman in mysterious circumstances in Cairo, demands citizens to differentiate between resistance committees and neighborhood committees.
He noted that neighborhood committees exercise service activities instead of the popular committees of the former regime, while the resistance committees are control bodies in neighborhoods, villages and markets and have organizational contact led by the ruling coalition.
Here, the Secretary General of the National Path Party, Louay Abdel Moneim, proposes the election of neighborhoods to the committees, criticizing their appointment in consultation with the forces of change and seizing the assets of the People's Committees affiliated with the former regime.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, he accuses the Communist Party of planning to control administrative units and localities to inherit the former ruling National Congress Party.
Breakthrough hypothesis
It was noteworthy the refusal, which met with the coordination committees of Khartoum meeting Friday between the resistance committees and Lieutenant General Mohammed Hamdan Humaidti, deputy chairman of the Sovereign Council, commander of the rapid support forces, and Director of General Intelligence Abu Bakr Dumblab.
According to Abdullah Awad, a member of the General Coordination of Resistance Committees in the Center and the States and the leadership of the Professionals' Association, the coordination leadership is able to control the committees, but this does not negate the existence of violations and the penetration of the independent resistance committees because of the lack of information and communication sometimes or even because the government does not listen to the committees, he said.
Mohamed Omar Fransawi, a member of the Berri Resistance Committee, admits that the breakthrough is possible, pointing out that there are attempts by the parties - refusing to name them - follow the forces of freedom and change trying to penetrate the resistance committees or the formation of parallel committees, but the committees are still standing as he put it.
Future Committees
Abdullah Awad is reassured that an organizational body for the resistance committees at the country level is being built, and will not be affected by the future of the high-impact community of professionals on the street.
He says that this body will integrate the Resistance Committees neighborhoods into larger committees to form coordinates in each city and then central coordination of any state and federal general coordination.
He adds that the leadership is currently working to rehabilitate and train members of the resistance committees who will form the future municipal councils in preparation for the elections after three years.
He says the resistance committees have visions in all areas of the government and will activate the campaign "Hanbenho" (Snnbh), without abandoning its oversight role of the government and the continuation of revolutionary sense.
Underground work continues in preparation for the worst. The Berri Commission has four shadow offices, while the declared committees are already "burned" and known to the security services.