68 years after independence, Sudanese army still calls itself the “People’s Forces”
by Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) celebration on Thursday 14th August 2014, for its Sixtieth Anniversary. Apparently, it marked the day when the Sudanese Gen. Mohammad Ahmad received the leadership of the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) from the British Major General Reginald ‘Cully’ under which (SDF) has become 100% made up of Sudanese individuals after a long period under the British colonialism. This occasion used to be referred to as Eid al-Jala’, was meaning the occasion of the Departure of the occupying British Army from Sudan on the Convention of Self-determination of 1954.
Greetings are only to the honest Patriotic group in the Sudanese armed forces who boldly favour the Sudanese people’s choices.
The Sudanese people are asking with bitterness as to his achievement through the Sudanese army in the 60 years that the regime of National Congress Party (NCP) trying to celebrate other than the coups d ‘ états which amounted to more than nineteen military coup attempts, three of them succeeded. Those coups in 1958, 1969 and 1989 only brought to the people Sudan death, destruction, impoverishment, dispossession, displacement, genocide and brain drain of the competencies of the nation into the middle of the unknown in the Diaspora. The Sudan Armed Force (SAF) made the Sudanese citizen its archenemy and the Sudanese homeland soil its battlefield and the meagre possessions of the peasants and traders for war booty and secession of one-third of Sudan’s one million square miles as its victory. Furthermore, placing the wedge between the tribes for sedition and the fragmentation of the social fabric as a triumph on the doctrine of divide and rule which represents the most cunning doctrine usually used by dictators through (SAF) coming on November 17th 1958 military junta coup led by General Ibrahim Abboud followed by the May 25 regime of Marshal Jaafer Mohammed Nimeiri in 1969, followed by the infamous National Islamic Front (NIF) on 30th June 1989 led by the fugitive from the international justice genocidal criminal, the incumbent Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and his associated International Muslim Brotherhood Consortium.
The Sudanese army since its inception did not fight a war to defend the soil of the homeland, which is the main task of the armies in every country on earth. SAF ignited civil wars against the people of the country everywhere; starting with the south Sudan that continued for more than two decades and ended with the secession of that dearly part taking with it one-third of the land of former Sudan and ten million inhabitants. In 2003 (SAF) waged another long civil war in the region of Darfur when the citizens peacefully asked for their citizenship rights of development, power-sharing and wealth-sharing in an attempt to end marginalisation. The response of the fundamentalist Islamic Putschists was prompt and the Decisive military action. It resulted in genocide, displacement, asylum, and mass destruction to the infrastructure that was originally fragile and the lives of citizens in the region.
Thus, the so-called Sudanese army remained over the years the oppressing arm for the dictatorship regimes.
Civil Wars that resulted in tearing the country apart from all its edges continued unabated in other parts of the country that included the Eastern Beja regions, the South Kordofan of Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile region of the Ingasana. The Nubia people in the Far Northern region of Dar-al-Manaseer, Amrey and Kajbar continued to suffer the woes of the war waged against them.
Unfortunate to the people of Sudan the main task of the (SAF) became the protection of the totalitarian military regimes and suppressing its opponents and killing the unarmed innocent citizens. The kudos of the alleged SAF continued to be organizational loyalty and hating of the Sudanese people became an ideology for the domesticated army.
Article 5 (1) of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) states the (SAF) are regular national troop’s configuration, professional and non-partisan, composed of Sudanese who meet the entry requirements without discrimination due to race, religion or ethnicity. This is an item of Chapter II of the Law of the Sudanese Armed Forces. Moreover, the question now is whether the Sudanese armed forces adhered to any part of this law. The obvious answer is, of course not at all.
We know for a fact that there are a number of great nations in the world today, such as Switzerland and others who have dispensed with the army. They based that decision on the reality of the defeat of the purpose for having an army anymore. Now they live in peace, progress, prosperity and well-being of the peoples. Moreover, the question that probably imposes itself is as to whether there is the need for the presence of the army in Sudan, which costs more than 50% of Sudan’s budget to kill citizens.
Lt. Gen Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, Minister of Defense of the ruling regime NCP – referred to cynically as the Defense by the ‘naked eye’ – recently said that the Army is prevalent in all States of Sudan, probably for an onslaught on the Sudanese citizens as usual. The first Lt. Gen General Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein Intimate friend of Omar al-Bashir has failed in his mission, many have demanded his impeachment from office, and his addiction of failure is due to his reliance on the strange theory of defence by the naked eye! The Sudanese Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, who does not know anything in the military field continued boasting the readiness of his armed forces to defend the homeland and defend their destinies, pointing out that the army is widespread in all the states of Sudan and carry out its duties as best «tirelessly» i. e. killing citizens round the clock even those living inside Nuba mountain caves and the Darfuris stranded in the mountains and jungles and Sahara’s fleeing his killer Aerial bombardment by Antonov airship that throws burning barrel and Meg24 bombers. Nevertheless, he fails to protect the Capital Khartoum from foreign air raids that repeatedly bombed the ammunition factories. The history of the Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, indicated that he did not take part in any battle in his entire life. He is a technician by profession, graduating from the former Khartoum Technical College. After joining the army, he was assigned the job of lubricating the blades of army helicopters rather than fixing them. (Reference: page 4 of the Book titled ‘Study War No More” Military Tactics of a Sudanese Rebel Movement” – The case of JEM – by Abdullahi Osman El-Tom.
It is noteworthy to realise that Sudan has the fifth largest army in the African continent with 110000 regular combatants besides the enumerable militias and mercenary recruits. Sudan’s size of the army was only surpassed by Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, Algeria and Libya. This incredibly huge-sized army consumes from the Sudanese public purse 70% of the national income of each fiscal year! Thus, about 80% of the Sudanese people have to live in poverty, 60% continue to be illiterate, besides being targeted and killed by the very army.
The Darfur rebel movements were a priced national armed resistance against the regime of the Islamist racist obnoxious National Congress Party (NCP) led by the war criminal fugitive from the international justice the perpetrator of genocide, Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir and his evil gangsters. Moreover, the liberation movements in Darfur, have been causing crushing defeats to the so-called Sudanese armed forces (SAF) in the battles they fought on the battlefields despite the unequal militarization and the number of fighters in comparison to the (NCP) army backed by the Janjaweed militia with the multiple names; beginning with the Abu-Taira, Popular Defence Force( PDF), the Border Guards, The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) which have made the Government troops retaliate against the unarmed peaceful citizens in Darfur by applying the scorched earth policy. The result was the destruction of sources of human and animal life by aerial bombardment using Antonov airships, MIG and Sukhoi fighter jet bombers causing destruction and poisoning of water sources and burning villages and displacement of the survivors to the middle of nowhere.
The Minister of Defense, in an interview with Sudan TV Thursday 14 August 2014 evening, on the so-called occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Sudan Armed Forces said that the Sudanese army is the most organized and cohesive armies in the region and has the ability to maintain its unity in spite of the state of a long war that it experienced.!
With regard to defence against external aggression, the “defence minister by the naked eye” said that the establishment of a fully Non-penetrative Sudanese air defence is very expensive and difficult for a lot of countries and that the Sudanese armed forces follow the procedures capable of protecting the security of the country from external aggression! The people of Sudan are justified to say what is the point or the rationale for having such a costly and a huge incapable army just to massacre the unarmed citizens.
The sixtieth anniversary of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) remained without any tangible beneficial effect for the homeland and the citizens. Many sensible people would say that it is time for the Sudanese people to do without the army that costing them an astronomical budget, which should have been better utilised for the development projects, education, healthcare, poverty eradication and other areas useful for the citizens of the country. At the same time, the country would get rid of the destruction and killing machine used by the Sudan Armed Force.
It was necessary to return to the situation of Sudan after the popular 18th December 2019 Revolution in Sudan, which came after massive sacrifices, but unfortunately, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), headed by the General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Burhan and his partner Mohamed Hamdan Dogolo, the famous Hemedti, still have the final word; let alone the Coup attempt that changed the goals of the Glorious Popular December the 18th 2019 Sudanese Revolution. Furthermore, the end result has been empowering the Putschists with a consequence of the resignation of the Sudanese Prime Minister Dr Abdallah Hamdok and a further mess and anarchism. And there are battles in a non-battle that are taking place between the components of the Sudanese revolution and some members belonging to the Sudanese political parties, who are termed the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC). As we know, the Forces for Freedom and Change mainly belong to the Sudanese Traditional Parties which have lost credibility, some of which follow religious Sects and others are leftist and/or Communist as they have never presented anything that fixes the situation for the Sudanese people over the years since the Independence of Sudan from the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium on the dawn of Sunday the First of January 1956.
Thus, the Sixtieth anniversary- aka SIXTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY of the SUDAN ARMED FORCES (SAF) does NOT mean anything over the Decades to the people of Sudan other than it is the curse of fate for them.
Dr Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/