Sudan’s PM unveils ‘Hope Government’, rejects political quotas

June 19, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – Sudan’s newly appointed Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Thursday announced plans for a non-partisan technocratic government, a move that directly challenges existing power-sharing deals with armed groups allied with the army.

Idris, appointed on May 19, by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is the first person to hold the premiership since Abdalla Hamdok resigned in 2022 following a 2021 military coup.

His plan for a 22-member “Government of Hope” composed of independent experts directly confronts the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement. Under that deal, Gibril Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, is the finance minister, while a representative of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Minni Minawi, holds the minerals ministry.

In a televised address outlining his vision, Idris said he would erase “political quotas and nepotism in all their forms” from the government’s dictionary. He stated his goal was to achieve “fair appointments based on the most competent, most experienced… and most distinguished in reputation and integrity.”

To achieve this, Idris laid out specific conditions for his cabinet members, who must be non-partisan Sudanese nationals with leadership skills and “the highest levels of knowledge, competencies, and technical expertise” in their fields. While asserting his independence, he invited all qualified national experts to submit their resumes to help build a “central national stockpile” of talent.

As part of a sweeping overhaul of the state, Idris also pledged to review and dismantle what he called “parallel governments” of unnecessary councils and commissions that “drain public funds.”