Sudan announces major reshuffle in top army posts
June 20, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced today that it has retired the military chief of staff and other senior officers after they have reached the retirement age.
Lieutenant General Mohamed Graham Omer Sha’oul was appointed as the new SAF General Inspector, General Ismail Breima Abdel-Samad as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Ahmed Abdalla al-Naw as the Chief of Staff of the Land Forces, General Emad al-Deen Mustafa Adawi as the Chairman of the Joint Operations Staff, General Daleel al-Daw Mohamed Fadlalla as the Chief of Staff of the Navy, General Sideeg Amer Hassan Ali as the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security and General Al-Sayed Ali Sir al-Khatim Mustafa as the Director of the Medical Services Administration.
Col. Al-Sawarmi said that other unnamed officers at several senior ranks were either promoted or sent to retirement “in the context of the annual routine work at the SAF” and “succession of generations and to provide opportunities to others”
Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir also met today with the outgoing and the new chiefs of staffs, he added.
The role of the Sudanese army has been under the microscope lately given stepped up attacks by rebel groups in Darfur, South Kordofan and North Kordofan state.
In late April, Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebels, who aim to topple the regime of President Omer Hassan al-Bashir, took control of Abu-Kershola as part of a wide offensive that saw them briefly occupying North Kordofan second largest town of Um Rawaba.
The attack was significant given the fact that rebel activity has been mostly limited to the states of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Residents said that the rebels were met with little resistance from government forces there.
This month the powerful presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie said in rare remarks that the army is struggling to deal with rebels and stressed the need to boost recruitment and support for the military.
But at the time al-Sawarmi said in a subtle response to Nafie that the army has protected the capital from falling at the hands of the rebels.
“I emphasize that the Sudanese army is the one deterring any outlaw and if it wasn’t for the Sudanese army deterring outlaws whether they belonged to the so-called [Sudan] revolutionary front and other rebel movements, these movements have now seized the city of Khartoum and the regime would have totally collapsed” al-Sawarmi told Sudan Radio Service (SRS).
“The truth is that the army protects the homeland and this does not need us to confirm,” he added.
(ST)