Wake-up call: A Rift between the Generals
By: Consultant/Engineer Omer Al-Bakri Abu Haraz
No doubt that General Himidti became a conspicuous figure in the political scene since April 11, 2019, the historic day of the ousting of the Salvation regime which ruled Sudan for more than 30 years since June 1989. He was one of the key persons who successfully apprehended President Al-Bashir and the top leaders of the Islamic National Congress Party (NCP).
He continued his plans to uproot the NCP regime by facing the two top brass of the army who assumed power for only 24 hours – General Ibn Ouf and General Kamal Abdul-Marouf after announcing the take-over from Al-Bashir. They were forced to resign after less than 24 hours.
General Himidti well before April 11, 2019, showed his resentment against the performance of the NCP and its failure to curb the dangerously growing deterioration in the country’s economy.
He sided with the popular movement of the youth till its culmination to the landmark sit-in around the army H.Q. on April 6, 2019.
Pictures of Himidti and slogans of welcome and appreciation to him were posted in different locations of the sit-in site. Sadly enough all of this appreciation to him by the revolutionaries withered and died dramatically after the malicious ruthless dispersal of the sit-in on June 2019 which claimed the lives of thousands of the revolutionaries and hundreds of thousands of injuries and mission in action. Most of the dispersal videos showed a massive presence officers and troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in excessive use of force against the revolutionaries.
Later General Himidti confessed openly that they swallowed the bait of the sit-in dispersal. He did not explain of how and why. Since that sad date of dispersal till now all revolutionaries put the blame and hatred to the RSF.
After the coup of October 25th, 2021, the second civilian government of Dr. Hamdok was dissolved along with almost full suspension of the Constitutional Documents signed on August 17, 2019 by the military component and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) by revoking backbone articles of it.
After the coup of October 2021 a rift between the two top Generals – Burhan and Himidti – started to grow.
The climax of the rift surfaced when the two Generals stood at logger-heads between two blocs of the FFC, each barricaded behind an initiative or agreement.
General Burhan and the military component, except Himidti, aligned with the FFC-democratic Bloc in the initiatives of wide Islamic groups and the Egyptians.
General Himidti steadfastly backed the Framework Agreement brokered by the two international mechanisms – Trilateral (UN, AU and IGAD) and the Quadruple (USA, UK, UAE and KSA). The gap between the two generals is widening by hostile implicit rhetoric. General Burhan and his military aides are repeatedly calling to expedite implementation of the integrating the RSF in the national army together with measures leading to the diminishing of the power of Himidti. It Started by handing over the Juba Peace Agreement implementation to General Kabashi, who led the government delegation to Juba last week and signed the agreement of implementation modalities and time-tables.
Himidti was head of the government team and signed the agreement on October 2020. Calculated and intended rumors about the intension of General Burhan to dissolve the Sovereign Council and the formation of a new Security and Defence Council of armed forces units’ commanders including RSF under his command. Himidti will be a member only.
On Saturday march 4, few days ago, General Abdul Rahim Daglo openly sent fiery words in a rally of the native administration : “For those now in power, we say relinquish power to civilians without delaying tactics. From now we will not tolerate any killing of the youth revolutionaries in their rallies. We will also not accept random apprehending of civilians”.
So, it seems that the rift is reaching a dangerous stage.
A showdown between the National Army and RSF is unlikely. A hybrid military coup is likely.