In Sudan, ten days after the military coup, international pressure is mounting for a swift return of the civilian-led government. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates ar…

Mo Ibrahim: "The Sudanese are really looking for freedom and democracy"

Anglo-Sudanese billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim at a press conference in Kenya in June 2021. AP - Ben Curtis

Text by: Christina Okello

3 min

In Sudan, ten days after the military coup, international pressure is mounting for a swift return of the civilian-led government.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the United States in lobbying the generals on Wednesday on the basis of a joint statement.

The situation in Sudan worries Sudanese like Mo Ibrahim, billionaire entrepreneur and founding president of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in London.

He denounces the stranglehold of the military on the country.

Advertising

RFI: What do you think of this coup?

Mo Ibrahim:

This coup is really sad, but it was not a surprise.

In Sudan, the military is what I call a “society”, which includes the army, the rapid support forces led by General Hemedti, and also the security forces and the intelligence services.

These people control between 70 to 80% of the country's resources: mines, businesses, financial institutions… They have enormous economic interests.

All of this was under threat because one of the goals of the Hamdok government was to return the state ownership of these plundered resources.

International pressure, as we have said, is accelerating, is it sufficient

I think the response of the international community in condemning the coup and suspending aid to these people has been reasonable, but I think there needs to be targeted sanctions.

Because these people are only interested in money.

We should threaten the economic interests of all these generals, everyone knows where their money is, in the Gulf States, Turkey, Malaysia ... So it is possible to trace these financial flows and announce that their assets will be frozen and will be a target for the ICC.

Only then will they realize that their personal prosperity and security are at stake.

In Khartoum, we talk about the influence of the Gulf countries on the generals to explain the military coup. The Emirates and Saudi Arabia have now sided with the Americans, but not Egypt. What message would you send to Cairo?

My message is this: don't sacrifice the people for a few erratic generals.

We must also remind our Egyptian brothers that they made a serious mistake in being the first country to recognize Omar al-Bashir after his military coup.

They later found out that it was in fact a coup staged by representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Here again, we see that after this new coup, all these Islamist leaders were released from prison.

Please don't do something today that you may regret later.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese demonstrated twice in October to say "Yes" to a 100% civilian power.

Is power sharing with the military still possible?

Well I have to be optimistic, I can't afford to be pessimistic.

Sudan has had a very sad history.

We gained our independence in 1956, about 65 years ago, and for most of that period we were ruled by a military dictatorship: first by General Abboud, then General Nimeiry, General Bashir, and today Generals Hemedti and Burhan.

People have had enough.

We need a professional army that defends the country, and that is subject to civilian control.

It is the normal way of governing a country.

It will be a difficult task now to really reposition this army.

How do you see a way out of the crisis?

I think it's very simple, the Sudanese are really looking for freedom and democracy.

It is a basic human right and we should not be deprived of it.

We shouldn't be denied it.

►Also read: Sudan: in the wake of the putsch, the support of the old regime seems to be back in force

Mo Ibrahim: "The Sudanese are really looking for freedom and democracy"

Mo Ibrahim: "The Sudanese are really looking for freedom and democracy"

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest