Sudan's political polarization threatens to prolong war

Observers believe that the alignment of the parties behind Burhan (right) and Hemedti complicates the Sudanese scene and threatens any political process (agencies)

Khartoum - The state of polarization and division between the Sudanese parties has escalated, as civil and political forces lined up alongside the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo "Hemedti", while political blocs stood behind the military institution led by the President of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and observers believe that this division will complicate the Sudanese scene, prolong the war, threaten any political process, and reproduce the crisis in the country.

The former prime minister, who leads the Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces "Taqaddum" Abdullah Hamdok and "Hemedti", signed a declaration in Addis Ababa on January 2, which observers considered the launch of a political alliance, especially since the Forces of Freedom and Change - Central Council, which was associated with the rapid support with a framework agreement before the war, was active in the "Addis Ababa Declaration".

The Vice President of the Sovereignty Council, Malik Agar, said during an interview with Sudan State TV that the "Taqaddam" alliance is the political wing of the Rapid Support Forces.

On the other hand, the UN Secretary-General's envoy to Sudan, Algeria, Ramadan Lamamra, began his new mission in Port Sudan, the temporary headquarters of the Sudanese government, on Saturday with a meeting with political blocs supporting the army.

The blocs included the Forces of Freedom and Change-Democratic Bloc, the National Consensus Forces, the Coordination of National Forces, the Sudanese National Front, the Revolutionary Front, and the National Movement Forces.

Following their meeting with Lamamra, the political blocs affirmed their adherence to the armed popular resistance, their support for the army, their rejection of the mediation of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and demanded the classification of the Rapid Support Forces as a "terrorist group".

In a joint statement, these blocs blamed the former head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, and the Forces of Freedom and Change-Central Council for the outbreak of the war and called for a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Political incubator

In an open letter to Hamdok, confident academic and political thinker Kamir said, "The political declaration between TAQADAM and Hemedti exacerbates political and military polarization, and pushes political and societal forces opposed to TAQADAM to ally with the army, thus consolidating its existence as a political party."

Kamir considered the "Addis Ababa Declaration" the launch of a new political incubator that defeats the idea of broad participation of national forces that Hamdok calls for by bringing together the parties, and implicitly accused the forces of freedom and change of exploiting the declaration to serve their goal in the search for power by returning to the station before the April 15 war.

Former Umma Party Secretary-General Abdel Rahman al-Ghali also criticized the Hemedti and Hamdok consensus, and called for adding active blocs in the political process and not excluding the former ruling National Congress Party, because if it is accused of igniting war, efforts to stop the war require dialogue with it.

Al-Ghali believes in a reading through his wall in "Facebook" that there is no way to solve the crisis except through a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue that does not exclude anyone, and is not dominated by anyone, and if this is not possible because the parties reject each other or "veto" from some of them, the solution will be in the hands of the people.

Bridge span

For his part, Maher Abu al-Jokh, a leader in the Sudanese Alliance Party and a member of the Central Council of the Forces of Freedom and Change, believes that they have not aligned themselves with any party, and that this description applies to political groups that supported the army before the war, and they are either engaged in the war militarily or politically, and have become part of the war regardless of its size, role and future.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net says Abu Al-Gokh that the alliance "progress" against the war, and does not support a party, and extends bridges of communication with the parties to stop the war, and found a response from one party "rapid support" and prevent the other party who does not want the political forces and any equation of the parties forces of freedom and change.

He explains that the current situation does not lead to a political role for the military or a civil-military partnership as happened in the constitutional document in 2019, and believes that one of the reasons for the undeclared war is the legitimization, consecration and presence of the army in politics, but the outcome of the war will lead to otherwise.

For his part, political researcher Abdul Rahim Hassan believes that the state of division between the parties at the current stage is similar to what was before the war, where the forces of freedom and change - the Central Council stood with rapid support after the signing of a framework agreement, and demanded that the army set a short period for the integration of Hemedti's forces into the military institution, and other political forces supported him that excluded the agreement from the political process.

The researcher says to Al Jazeera Net that the "alliance "progress" will reproduce the crisis if he considers himself the exclusive representative of the civil forces, and sought to monopolize the political process leaning on the gun of rapid support. This would lead to the exclusion of other forces that would turn to the military against their opponents.

Hassan believes that the political forces did not take the lesson and lessons from the war, did not change their political approach and discourse, put their partisan agenda above patriotism, and did not make concessions to each other in order to reach common denominators that lead the country to a new stage, while the country faces challenges that threaten its unity and social fabric.

Source : Al Jazeera