Al-Mahdi awaiting right time to take part in Sudan’s protests: NUP

March 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The National Umma Party (NUP) Saturday said its leader Sadiq al-Mahdi did not take part in a protest organised at the end of Friday prayers in Wad Nubawi neighbourhood of Omdurman because he is awaiting the right moment.

Worshipers used for more than three months to take to the street after the weekly prayer in the mosque of Al-Ansar sect on Friday chanting slogans calling for the departure of President Omer al-Bashir without al-Mahdi who performs the prayer at the mosque every week.

“Yesterday, the Imam went out of the mosque on foot to the house of the Habbani family, located not far from the mosque to present his condolence for the death of Sadiya Mohamed Saleh,” said a statement the opposition party released.

“He was followed by a large number of worshipers who marched behind him chanting revolutionary slogans,” added that statement pointing that they used to do so every time at the end of the prayer when he goes out the mosque to his vehicle.

This statement was criticised by activists on the social media who denounced the position of the opposition leader while they mobilize people for a big demonstration on 6 April to mark the 34th anniversary of the 6 April Uprising and to reenergize the protest movement in its fourth month.

The criticism triggered an additional “explanatory statement” from the leader of the Sudan Call alliance himself to deny disdaining to march against the regime but just waiting for the right time.

Al-Mahdi in his statement recalled his commitment to the opposition agenda and stressed that he is implementing the decisions of the recent Sudan Call in Paris about the unification of the opposition forces and the escalation of the protests against the regime.

“I do not disdain to take to the street. But we are working on the march of all the (opposition) leaders in a planned way to achieve the popular demand for the establishment of the new desired regime.”

“This requires achieving the unity of the opposition ranks, and then the move (demonstrations) in the right time will involve millions of people and will be peaceful and nationwide in the capital, provinces, and outside the country,” he stressed.

Al-Mahdi, on Thursday, agreed with the Sudanese Islamist groups that are opposed to the regime of President Omer al-Bashir to work together for th establishment of a broad front to restore democracy in Sudan.

(ST)