Sudanese army supports framework agreement because it leads to RSF’s integration: Burhan
February 16, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – The integration of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the army is the main reason for the support of the national army to the framework agreement, stated General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese army on Thursday.
On December 5, 2022, al-Burhan and Hemetti signed the Political Framework Agreement which provides to hand over power to civilians and merge the RSF into the national army.
While the RSF commander expressed his adherence to the agreement and readiness to merge his paramilitary forces into the national army, the commander-in-chief continued to address different messages here and there.
In remarks delivered at a mass marriage ceremony north of Shendi, in the Zakiab locality of the River Nile state, al-Burhan went directly to ask the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) to involve more political forces.
“The Forces for Freedom and Change had a great opportunity to lead the Sudanese in 2019, and they still have this opportunity. They must accept to sit with others and lead the Sudanese. We, as soldiers, will also be under the leadership of these civilian forces,” he said.
The head of the military-led Sovereign Council further directed a second message to “our brothers the politicians, stay away from bidding in the name of the army”. But, he stopped short of specifying any political group.
Some former rebel groups that support the October 25 coup rejected to join the framework agreement because it does not guarantee their participation in the new transitional government instead they call to main the 2019 constitutional declaration because it provides this guarantee.
To obstruct the process, they formed the Democratic Bloc with Gaffar al-Mirghani a leader of a faction of the Democratic Unionist Party supported by the Egyptian government. Then, they held a meeting in Cairo and formed a broad political coalition, calling to include them in an inclusive process.
On other hand, the FFC say open to the inclusion of the armed groups because they are signatories of the Juba peace agreement but they cannot involve all the Sudanese political groups that supported the coup and were part of the former regime because they are not supportive to the revolution’s slogans.
Particular interest
Al-Burhan, voiced his support for the framework agreement and its full implementation, pointing out that as the military they are particularly keen on one of these provisions related to the RSF merger in the national army
“We are supportive of the framework agreement because it includes an article of particular interest for us as military personnel, which is the integration of the RSF into the armed forces,” he said to explain that he is not indifferent to the framework agreement.
He stressed that the national army would not accept the political framework agreement if this clause is not implemented.
“If anyone thinks they can defeat the army, they are wrong, because the armed forces have been fighting for more than a hundred years and no one has been able to defeat them,” he said.
He further recalled the undeclared antagonism of the army towards these paramilitary forces.
Al-Burhan statements come after reports about the army’s frustration with its commercial and mining activities and close cooperation with the Russian Wagner contractors deployed in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Hemetti for his part, repeated several times since last December his commitment to the framework agreement and the merger of his troops in the national army.
(ST)