Arman warns against banned NCP’s attempts to recover power in Sudan
April 9, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – A leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) Yasir Arman warned against attempts by the banned Islamist National Congress Party (NCP) to take control of the state and army, taking advantage of the country’s current political strife in the country.
In an article extended to the Sudan Tribune on Saturday, Arman said that the NCP is seeking to regain control of state institutions and the Sudanese army as the means to return to rule the country.
“The National Congress Party and its Islamist leaders could not rule Sudan, or even defeat Dr Hassan al-Turabi (in 1999) without controlling state institutions and the armed forces,” he wrote.
He stressed that the NCP seeks to exploit the isolation experienced by the coup leaders to control the army again.
After the coup, Al-Burhan appointed a number of Islamist cadres in the country’s sensitive organs, including the presidency, the intelligence and security services, the foreign ministry and the judiciary. Also and the Islamists who were dismissed from the civil service and public institutions have been reinstated while the businessmen recovered their companies and assets.
The judiciary, also, released NCP leader Ibrahim Ghandour and a number of Islamist leaders on Wednesday, April 6. Ghandour appeared alongside some leaders wanted by the prosecution, while rumours are circulating in Khartoum about the imminent release of other detained leaders, including former President Omer al-Bashir.
In an interview with Al Jazeera TV on Thursday, Ghandour praised al-Burhan’s coup, describing it as a corrective step to mistakes made by the Sudanese army, particularly the signing of a political agreement with the FFC as a representative for the revolution’s forces.
Arman said that Ghandour, despite his goodwill gestures, seemed cautiously angry with the armed forces, because they signed the Constitutional Declaration with the FFC and accepted to put the NCP leaders in jail.
Return of war
Arman warned the armed movements signatory of the Juba Peace Agreement that the NCP’s return to power would have a negative impact on the peace implementation process, such as what happened to the democratic transition process.
The SPLM-N deputy leader underscored that Ghandour described them as “rebels” before saying that the return of the al-Bashir party would lead to the eruption of war again in Sudan.
“The return of the National Congress Party necessarily means the return of wars later, repression and looting of resources.”
He added armed struggle movements should know that they are the first concerned with this issue and that it is just a matter of time.
Arman concluded his paper by appealing to the revolution’s forces to make concessions to each other rather than to their opponents, as he said, and to agree on a unified and comprehensive platform for the transitional period.
(ST)