Sudanese army chief under fire from Islamist preacher
November 29, 2024 (ISTANBUL) – Prominent Islamist preacher Abdel Hay Youssif launched a blistering attack on Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Wednesday, accusing him of being untrustworthy and claiming Islamists, not the army, deserve credit for recent battlefield successes.
Speaking at a lecture organized by Mukarbat for Political Development, a Syrian Islamist centre in Istanbul, where he has resided since the fall of the former regime, Youssif claimed al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemetti” are both connected to “the Zionists.”
“Both have ties with the Zionists,” Youssif said. “Hemetti is linked to the Mossad, while al-Burhan went directly to meet (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu in Entebbe.”
Youssif accused al-Burhan of allowing the RSF to occupy strategic positions in the capital, Khartoum, without army approval and of amending laws to enable the RSF to expand and recruit unchecked.
Youssif has a history of supporting military rule in Sudan. He backed the 2019 dispersal of a sit-in protest outside army headquarters and the 2021 coup led by al-Burhan and Hemetti. After war broke out in April, Youssif sided with the army against the RSF.
However, his support appears to have waned. Youssif said the Islamist movement has no confidence in al-Burhan, who he claimed bears primary responsibility for the current conflict.
“He has no religion and bears the greatest share of responsibility for causing this crisis,” Youssif said, adding that the RSF’s growth “was under his watch.”
Hemetti launched the war against the army in April after a dispute over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular military.
Youssif claimed al-Burhan is “incapable of eliminating the Islamists” and expressed concern over an unpublicized meeting between al-Burhan and U.S. officials during a recent trip to America.
He attributed recent battlefield gains to the “Popular Resistance,” not the army, saying, “God brought about this war to restore the Islamist movement to its glory and strength.”
He said “tens of thousands” of young Muslims are fighting in the “Popular Resistance” – a term he used to avoid the word “jihad” – and have been trained by veterans of the war in South Sudan.
Youssif also criticized Turkey’s stance on the conflict, saying the Turkish foreign minister had told a delegation of Muslim scholars that the war is “sedition” and selling weapons to either side is forbidden.
He contrasted Turkey’s intervention in Libya with its reluctance to get involved in Sudan, attributing the difference to Turkey’s more outstanding economic interests in Libya.
Youssif said al-Burhan lacks the “respectable personality” to encourage engagement with Turkey and others and accused him of breaking agreements. He cited an incident in which al-Burhan allegedly approved a visit by the Qatari foreign minister and allowed Hemetti to block it after the minister’s plane had taken off.
“When the Qatari Minister of State for Defence contacted al-Burhan, he excused himself by saying there were arrangements,” Youssif said. “The Qatari minister told him: ‘Allow me to tell you that you are lying.'”