KHARTOUM – Days after freezing the assets of his companies and halting the payment of wages to his forces, the head of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, sacked his deputy and commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti), in a move to strip him of his constitutional legitimacy and lift the political cover from him.

The dismissal comes after the RSF adviser for political affairs, Youssef Ezzat, moved to rally support abroad, according to observers who expected the steps to lead to an escalation of violence in the Darfur region.

Burhan's decision to dismiss Hemedti from the position of vice president of the Sovereignty Council came 35 days after the outbreak of confrontations between their forces, and the classification of the army commander of the Rapid Support Forces as "rebel militias," raising questions from political and media circles about the reason for delaying Hemedti's dismissal from his constitutional position.

President of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and next to him (right) his deputy, commander of the Rapid Support Forces Hemedti (Anatolia-File)

Trapping any movement

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, a source in the Sovereignty Council said that Burhan was busy since the beginning of the war in mid-April / April last year leading the military operation to break the back of the RSF rebels until the objectives of the operation, which entered its final phase, were achieved.

After the army commander took the initiative and became confident of the end of the rebellion, he began arranging the inner house to prepare the stage for the post-war phase, and the removal of the RSF commander came within the framework of these arrangements, according to the same source.

The source adds that the removal of Hemedti from the Sovereignty Council, not only the position of its vice-president, strips him of any constitutional legitimacy or political immunity, lifts the political cover on any movement inside or outside the country, and embarrasses any party trying to deal with him.

Last Thursday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry protested to the State of South Sudan after receiving Hemedti's adviser for political affairs, Youssef Ezzat, and allowing him to hold a press conference in Juba after meeting with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit.


Military arrangements

As part of military arrangements approved by the army command since the beginning of the year, Burhan appointed members of the military component of the Sovereignty Council to military positions, where General Shams al-Din al-Kabbashi was declared deputy commander-in-chief of the army, and General Yasser al-Atta and Lieutenant General Ibrahim Jaber as assistants to the commander-in-chief of the army.

Burhan had issued a new structure in the army, reinstating the system of commander-in-chief and chief of staff, and appointing a deputy commander-in-chief and three assistants, one of whom Hemedti was expected to be a representative of the Rapid Support Forces in the army command body.

According to military sources, the new arrangements removed Hemedti from the equation, saying that the distribution of military sites took into account the geographical distance: Kabashi hails from South Kordofan state, Yasser al-Atta from the north of the country, and Jaber from West Darfur and belongs to the Rizeigat nationality, to which the RSF commander also belongs.

And not to refer Hemedti to retire in the army or stripped of his military rank after being classified as a rebel, military sources say to the island that Burhan wants to submit Hemedti to a military trial in the event of his arrest, and if referred to retirement or stripped of his rank will become a civilian figure, pointing out that the acts committed by the commander of the Rapid Support punishable by death in the Armed Forces Act.

The RSF commander no longer has any political future or position in the military, according to the same sources. He has no choice but to seek a safe exit after the noose tightened, his forces broke and large numbers fled to the west of the country.

The sources do not rule out that Hemedti will try to leave the country to survive himself, as he has large funds and investments in Arab and African countries supervised by his younger brother, Alqouni Hamdan Dagalo.

Forces belonging to Hemedti, who analysts believe Burhan wanted to maintain his military status in preparation for his trial (French)

The Phase of No Return

In his view, political analyst Sami al-Habani believes that the relationship between Burhan and Hemedti has reached the stage of no return, and rules out any settlement that would return the RSF commander to the political or military scene.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Al-Habani believes that the army commander's decisions to freeze the balances of rapid support companies and stop disbursing the budget allocated to him, as well as the removal of Hemedti from his constitutional position in the Sovereignty Council, limit his role and lead to grumbling among his forces, which will lose their salaries, and expected that this will lead to an escalation of violence in Darfur.

The analyst explains that what happened in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, during the past two days was the protest of the Rapid Support Forces against the suspension of their salaries, as they attacked the headquarters of the Bank of Sudan in the city and were repelled by the army, which led to clashes between them that resulted in the death of dozens of military personnel and civilians as well, whose homes were hit by shells and rocket fragments.

Al-Habani ruled out repeating the model of South Sudan in Sudan when Vice President Riek Machar rebelled against President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and they entered into a bloody war that led to thousands of casualties from the forces of both sides and turned into armed confrontations between their tribes.

Regional and international pressure prompted Kiir and Machar to reach a political settlement in which the latter returned as vice president, shared power and integrated his forces into the army, but these steps remain stalled, al-Habani said.

Commenting on the #البرهان's decision to relieve #حميدتي from his position.

Fath al-Rahman Mohieldin, former commander of the naval forces: A very right decision #Sudan #الجزيرة_مباشر pic.twitter.com/6Suw5TsTu6

— Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) May 19, 2023

Maneuver

Mesbah Ahmed, spokesman for the Umma Party, the largest party of the Forces for Freedom and Change, described the decision to dismiss Hemedti as a "tactic" and a maneuver by Burhan to pressure the commander of the Rapid Support Forces before the start of negotiations between the two parties to resolve the crisis within the framework of the US-Saudi initiative.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Ahmed said that the decision removed Hemedti from the position of vice president of the Sovereignty Council and not from the membership of the Council, and that each party will try to use the cards it owns in the face of the other to achieve the greatest possible political gains.

Ahmed believes that the Jeddah negotiations between the army and the RSF have entered an advanced stage. Therefore, more than a month after the beginning of the clashes, Burhan rushed to make decisions against the RSF and its commander, which he could have taken at the beginning of the crisis.