Sudan: the visit of a military delegation to Israel is controversial

The Sudanese delegation was led by the brother of Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, better known as Hemedti, the vice-president of the Sovereign Council.

(illustrative image) ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP

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A delegation of Sudanese soldiers secretly visited Israel last week.

Several diplomatic sources confirmed it this weekend.

But in Sudan, the population does not necessarily take a positive view of this rapprochement with Israel, which above all seems to satisfy the staffs in high places.

This last visit is therefore controversial.

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With our correspondent in Khartoum,

Seen from Khartoum, it is a very controversial visit, as the Sudanese delegation was led by Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo's brother, better known as Hemedti.

The latter is the vice-president of the Sovereign Council and the commander of a powerful paramilitary militia in Sudan.

His brother was accompanied by several officers, including the head of the Sudanese Defense Industry.

This secret visit comes at a time of high tension between civilians and soldiers, just weeks after the foiled coup attempt.

It angered Foreign Minister Mariam Saddiq al-Mahdi for the simple reason that she had not been informed.

For many Sudanese analysts, the rapprochement with Israel

serves

the interests of generals who share power with civilians.

They are trying to exclude them from the dossier and develop their own military and security agenda with the Hebrew state.

However, the position of the civilian-led government is clear: there will be no effective normalization of relations with Israel until this decision is passed by the transitional parliament.

However, there is still no parliament in Sudan.

It has been almost two years since it should have seen the light of day.

For almost a year, Sudan has embarked on

its relations with the Jewish state.

A rapprochement that was initiated by former US President Donald Trump.

The United States had made it a condition of removing Sudan from the list of states supporting terrorism and thus lifting the economic sanctions that weighed on Khartoum.

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• Sudan

• Israel

• United States