The dangerous dance in Sudan

As I followed the numerous developments that the crisis in Sudan has experienced since it erupted more than a year ago, I realized that the army has completely lost its national compass. It has forgotten its role, its tasks and the responsibilities assigned to it. On the one hand, it has become a prisoner of personal vendettas, and on the other, it has submitted to the whims and goals of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood organization.

The hard truth about events in Sudan is that nothing has been off limits for the army in recent months. The army has allied itself with all available separatist and non-separatist militias and movements. Recently, it was even revealed that it is being supported in the fighting by mercenaries from Tigray. The Ethiopian government has protested against this. What is even more dangerous is that the army allows all extremist battalions and organizations operating under the flag of Islamism in its ranks. They are all operating within the umbrella of a great lie called “Popular Resistance.”

The Muslim Brotherhood battalions, such as the militant group Al Bara bin Mali and others, have their own flag, which they raise in the presence of members of the armed forces. They have their own media and propaganda organs.

The army even granted them the privilege of announcing the recapture of the radio and television building in Omdurman. The army withdrew from the stage in favor of these battalions who led the celebrations. They hoisted the victory flags in the deliberate absence of the army. The army issued only an official statement.

The Sudanese army has also brought tribal leader Musa Hilal back to the forefront of the confrontation. Musa Hilal is the founder of the Janjaweed and the one who committed unspeakable human rights violations. The army tried to exploit the enmity between him and his cousin, Lt. Gen. Hemedti, the commander of the Rapid Reaction Force. There are reports confirming that the army sent arms supplies to Musa Hilal to gain his support for the war. In an act that reveals their influence in this move, the Muslim Brotherhood celebrated his rapprochement with the army. They have an old relationship with him. They go way back to a decision by then Vice President Ali Osman Taha, who released him from prison in 2003.

Ali Osman Taha was the second man in the Muslim Brotherhood organization after Al Turabi. The Sudanese army also sought military support from Iran. Iran sent it drones, which contributed to very limited progress in this area. Ultimately, however, it preserved some semblance of dignity for the army, which had been lost on the battlefields.

Strangely, it is playing the Iranian card despite knowing how sensitive the issue is for an Arab country that supports Sudan and its people: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy that all these alliances have not intervened on behalf of the Sudanese army on the battlefront. It is still on the frontier of recapturing the radio and television building in Omdurman and stands helpless on the borders of its own capital.

Politically, there is a parallel story. The Sudanese army is also playing the card of Algerian diplomatic support. Taking advantage of Algeria’s strained relations with the UAE, it is trying to spread its illusions about the Emirates’ alleged interference in Sudanese affairs through the platform of the UN Security Council. However, it is not only taking aim at the Emirates, but also at neighboring Chad.

The army accuses Chad of supporting the rapid reaction forces and repeats empty claims, which Chad denies and asks the army to back up with evidence. The same applies to Egypt. Egypt is considered the strongest traditional supporter of the Sudanese army. The army has aroused Cairo’s mistrust by continuing its alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and submitting to its directives. This is despite knowing that this matter provokes Egypt, which attaches great importance to Sudan’s security and stability.

There is also the story that a gold refinery is to be built by Qatar to challenge the UAE, in childish act that reflect the level of thinking of these leaders.

Politically, the army is also peddling Russian influence against the US. Recently, it boasted of military cooperation with Russia after receiving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, in Port Sudan. This was an implicit message to the US. The US does not want a strategic role for the Russians in the Red Sea region and Bab el-Mandeb.

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his close associates in the army leadership are trying to appear “smarter” in every scene.

Some of them belong ideologically to the Muslim Brotherhood or are allied with them in terms of their interests. They ignore how hard it is to conceal their secret machinations in our world. They are fooling no one with their intransigence on the issue of opening negotiations or with claims of imminent, crushing military victory. Reality has proven the weakness of the Sudanese army’s fighting capacity. What is even more dangerous is that the army has become entangled in a quagmire of alliances with extremist militias, organizations and battalions. It is thus moving away from the formal status of a national army. Even if it wins a round or a battle, it will not be able to maintain the stability of the country.

This is due to the conflicting interests between it and the various movements, organizations, militias and battalions with which it has allied itself. The conflicting whims between it and this diverse, loosely connected coalition make it difficult to get rid of them. The army will have a hard time to turn its back on them overnight. The latest disaster to sully the name of the Sudanese army is the scenes of Daesh-style carnage that have gone viral on social media platforms.

These scenes show elements in the uniform of the Sudanese armed forces killing a man, slashing his stomach and waving his intestines around in a bloody scene that insults Sudan with all its political and partisan spectrums. In an earlier recording, a high-ranking military commander appeared. These scenes illustrate a catastrophic and dangerous situation, whether they happen without the army’s approval or under its supervision. They all show the army’s decision-making process slipping out of its control in favour of groups and organizations that are only interested in settling their internal scores, sending messages of terror and threat to their political and military opponents under the cover of official state uniforms.

The Sudanese army talks a lot about legitimacy and patriotism. But it completely ignores the interests and security of its people when it comes to resolving the crisis. It continues to be intransigent, acting according to the interests of its leaders and ignoring the humanitarian catastrophe.

It disregards the famine affecting millions of Sudanese only to bow to the directives of the Muslim Brotherhood who have no interest in ending the war because they want to return to power by force to impose their terms for the way of governance.

Apart from discussing the causes and objectives of the warring parties in the conflict, what is happening in Sudan is the result of the failure of the army leadership to sustain the country as a result of their arbitrariness, their gamble with the future of their country by getting into the arms of extremist terrorist power brokers.

Salem AlKetbi, UAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate