Issue No.3

The return of the Islamists
 

Just a few days after armed violence erupted in Sudan on 15 April 2023, over a dozen imprisoned senior figures in former president Omar al-Bashir's regime escaped from Khartoum’s Kober prison in a mass break-out. The members of the 'Kober gang' make for grim reading, a mixture of internationally wanted politicians and former high-ranking security officials. Among them is Abdelrahim Hussein, a former defence minister wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur in 2003 to 2004. It also includes Ali Osman Taha and Bakri Hassan Saleh, two former vice presidents in al-Bashir's regime.
 
The current armed conflict's main adversaries, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), have attempted to paint each other as responsible for the Kober escape. The escape fits into a pattern that has seen the return of dozens of Islamist military and other officials from al-Bashir's regime since October 2021.
 
Nearly all of the 'Kober gang' were previously members of the banned National Congress Party (NCP), which ruled Sudan until the 2019 revolution. Largely Islamist, the NCP, and its predecessor, the National Islamic Front, supported a conservative and undemocratic Sudan. In the first decade of al-Bashir's regime, trade unions were busted, women faced a strict dress code, and political parties were abolished.
 
The removal of al-Bashir and the banning of the party in 2019 did not spell the end of the NCP, however. Many of its leaders fled to Turkey, and some of its institutions were partially dismantled, but the exiled Islamists persisted in trying to influence Sudan’s political trajectory. The death of Mohamed al-Hassan, former representative for Sudan to the UN, eventually brought Ali Ahmed Karti to the fore as Secretary-General of the umbrella Sudanese Islamic Movement in June 2021.
 
A former foreign minister, Karti has been wanted since 2019 for his role in the 1989 coup that brought al-Bashir to power. Karti is also a devoted Islamist who served as Commander of the Popular Defence Forces in the 1990s.
 
The military coup that overthrew civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in October 2021 was a turning point for the Islamists. The coup rapidly accelerated the return of the NCP; hundreds of former members returned to positions in Sudan's judiciary, government ministries, and the central bank. Former NCP figures were also appointed to key positions, including the former South Kordofan Governor, Ahmed Mufdal, as head of the General Intelligence Service. The outbreak of armed conflict in April has seemingly hastened the return of Karti and other Islamists of the al-Bashir regime.
 
Now the depiction of SAF as a purely Islamist force is being pushed by RSF and its supporters. 'Arab Weekly,' a UAE-owned newspaper, has tied Sudan’s current leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to former Islamist regime officials and ‘jihadists.’ For the RSF, depicting al-Burhan as a radical Islamist is just another part of its dubious claim to be fighting for democratic transition and civilian government.
 
The reality is more complex. Many Islamists have remained loyal to the vision of Hassan al-Turabi, the father of Islamism in Sudan, and closely aligned with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Following al-Turabi's removal from office in early 1999 after an internal struggle with al-Bashir, much of the regime's 'ingaz' (salvation) was diluted, as al-Bashir pivoted toward the security arena.
 
And some Islamists are reportedly furious that al-Burhan engaged in the Jeddah talks, organised by the US and Saudi Arabia. For them, Al-Burhan is the face of an often fractious alliance of Arab military officers, plutocrats, and Islamist elite.
 
The NCP has had a grim history of targeting its opponents during both peace and wartime. Those like Taha and Karti remain deeply opposed to democracy in Sudan. However this conflict ends, and there is little sign of violence abating in the near future, these men will likely play a disturbing role in the country’s future. As al-Burhan speaks to the 78th United Nations General Assembly on 22 September, those present must look past the rhetoric of democracy and stability to the reality of complex power dynamics across Sudan.