General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane has been at war for six weeks against his former deputy General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo in Sudan, but a second front has opened up against him: that of the Islamists who are determined to finish off an officer they judge too conciliatory with the enemy.
Under the dictatorship of General Omar al-Bashir, who came to power by a putsch in 1989, the Islamists had the upper hand. They have developed an immense financial, commercial and political network.
In 67 years of independence, Sudan has spent more than 55 years under the thumb of the generals, recalls the Rift Valley Institute. “So Sudanese politics is inherently militarized and the military is a politicized institution,” the research center continues.
In 2019, when the army was forced to remove Bashir under pressure from the streets, the Islamists had to resign themselves to keeping a low profile. Bashir’s National Congress party was banned and several former dictatorship officials were imprisoned.
And the army, anxious to appease the street and the international community, chose “an unknown officer” – General Burhane – to take the lead of the country, assures the researcher Alex de Waal.
“Secure their place”
General Burhane then began to multiply hostile declarations against the Islamists and former senior officials of the Bashir regime, in particular against the National Congress.
But if Burhane gave pledges to the international community by distancing himself from the old regime, the Islamists remembered him when the war broke out on April 15: the National Congress issued a press release to express its support for the army, which he leads.
The Islamists “exploit the exceptional circumstances to guarantee their place on the future political scene”, explains to AFP Othmane al-Mirghani, boss of the independent daily al-Tayar.
Their comeback was highlighted by a coup: the letter sent Friday by General Burhane to the head of the UN Antonio Guterres to ask for the replacement of his emissary in Sudan, Volker Perthes.
The diplomat would be, accuses Burhane, “a party and no longer a mediator” in Sudan. He, by “his lies” duly “encouraged” General Daglo to “launch his military operations”.
Mr. Perthes was the bane of the Islamists who had been demonstrating for months to cries of “Volker, get out”.
Even if he satisfied a request from the Islamists, Burhane remains “only a pawn on the Sudanese political chessboard”, warns Mr. Mirghani.
The man who has never distinguished himself as a talented speaker “has several handicaps”, notes Alex de Waal.
“Unlike Daglo and Bashir before him, he does not have his own financial resources to arrange political agreements,” says this specialist in Sudan.
That’s why “he was always forced to haggle with the military contractors and the henchmen of the old guard for all the important decisions. »
“Mission Complete”
Thus, “he had to give in to pressure from the Islamists, who are still powerful in the security apparatus”, abounds Amir Babiker, editor-in-chief of the site Mouwatinounwhich follows news from the Horn of Africa.
To satisfy them, he therefore led a putsch on October 25, 2021, a few days before the theoretical date for the complete handing over of power to civilians.
This coup also made it possible to freeze the commission responsible for dismantling the networks – particularly economic ones – built under Bashir.
“If Burhane tried to remove certain Islamists, he had to accept that a certain number” remain, reports a connoisseur of the Sudanese army who prefers to speak on condition of anonymity.
Today, he finds himself alone with them. They accuse him of being too conciliatory with General Daglo and tirelessly recall that Burhane fought in Darfur in the 2000s in good agreement with their new enemy, who was then a militiaman in the pay of Bashir.
The Islamist and pro-Bashir television stations – all based abroad – now repeatedly accuse General Burhane of having been the stepping stone for the paramilitaries and Daglo, but also of having offered them arms and funding on a set .
“He’s a soldier: his mission ends with each campaign,” assures Mr. Mirghani. “And it could be the same with this war.”