Face of Truth: Behind the Scenes of the Failed Coup and the State’s Consolidation..

Ibrahim Shaqlawi

Since the outbreak of war on 15 April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces militia, attention has focused on the military and field scenes, while the civilian role, specifically the performance of the transitional government with its assigned leadership, remained far from the lenses of the media and the microscope of political analysis.

Behind the scenes, there was a pivotal role played by civil service leaders, at the forefront the assigned ministers, in preserving the cohesion of the state and foiling an attempted coup that was hiding behind violence, collapse, and an attempt to hijack the country.

These ministers came from administrative, not political, backgrounds, and were assigned in a critical phase that coincided with the decline of the central state’s authority. They found themselves in executive responsibility positions without political cover, nor institutional support, at a time when the war was expanding and government institutions were facing the possibility of disintegration and collapse.

A chance meeting joined me with one of these, Engineer Doa al‑Bayt Abdelrahman, the then assigned Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, in the transit lounge yesterday at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, while we were on our way to Port Sudan via Entebbe. The meeting was not planned, but it turned into a living testimony of history to a scene rarely written about by writers, illuminating aspects that the pens of the media or political analysis have not addressed.

What Al‑Bayt narrated was a calm reading of behind‑the‑scenes of a collective experience lived by the assigned ones, as they absorbed the shock of war, and prevented the disintegration of the state, amid the collapse of communication channels, the collapse of procedural infrastructure, and the absence of the executive work team.

When the transitional government moved to Port Sudan, the “alternative state” experience actually began, operating under the minimum of resources and under the maximum of pressure. And because most of the assigned ministers were already deputy heads of ministries originally, they had the keys to the executive work from the moment they assumed responsibility, without needing direction. This practical knowledge enabled them to restart the administrative machinery.

In the Ministry of Water Resources, the challenges were doubled. Managing the water file in a country at war, with infrastructure threatened by bombing and targeting, demanded rapid responses. One of the most prominent of those moments was the convening of a technical meeting of Nile Basin countries via videoconference on the third day of the war, from within the city of Wad Madani.

That was an important technical decision, as well as a strong political message implying that the state was still present and fulfilling its local and regional commitments.

Later, the ministry’s management moved to the residential city belonging to the Merowe Dam, where the reservoir management offices are located. With the intensification of operations, the ministry faced two very dangerous attempts: the first, in December 2023, when the Rapid Support Forces militia attempted to seize the Jabal Awliya reservoir. Despite issuing a statement claiming “concern for the safety of the reservoir,” its movement caused a sudden increase in levels that almost flooded entire cities on the banks of the White Nile.

The security and political analysis showed that what happened was an attempt to create a humanitarian disaster opening the door to international intervention, alongside pressure on the government to negotiate to establish a reality on the ground.

But the ministry, through the efforts of its leadership and its technical teams, succeeded in containing the situation without slipping into the scripted scenario. The second attempt was at “Beyara Mina” within the Gezira and Managil Project, where the militia in February 2024 sought to take control of the area aiming to establish a water barrier that would allow it to circumvent the army. Engineers were able to thwart the scheme through precise technical measures in controlling the water levels, foiling the attempt before it could achieve its goals.

In Port Sudan, the temporary capital, work began as if a permanent emergency plan. There were no offices, no ceremonies, but realistic administration from inside rented residences, without secretariat, not even food meals. The ministers handled the files dressed in the jalabiya, which had become the official work attire, and the meetings took place under complex conditions, but they performed their full responsibilities as though they were in their official buildings.

By the end of the second month of the war, the greatest challenge emerged: securing the salaries of workers. And at a moment when the state was on the brink of collapse, the insistence on fixing the salaries was an implicit message that the government, despite everything, remained standing and had not fallen.

The vision conveyed by Engineer Doa al‑Bayt expressed his convictions, as he sees that the philosophy of working under pressure depends on respect for the law, transparency, and the functional hierarchy, and realizing that sound decision‑making is made only by one who has breadth in information and appreciates the sensitivity of the moment.

The executive administration did not settle for managing internally, but actually embarked on re‑establishing the state in terms of infrastructure, services, and foreign relations. Radio and television broadcasts were restarted, government services, including passports and travel, were transferred to the temporary capital. Credits were also opened for importing medicine, fuel, and flour, despite the siege and logistical challenges.

It has been proven beyond doubt that the failure of the Rapid Support Forces militia’s coup was not solely the result of military work, but a direct result of the discipline and awareness of the executive apparatus, which contained the effects of collapse and preserved the continuity of the state.

With the rising tempo of threats, says Doa al‑Bayt, the role of Engineer Ibrahim Jaber emerged powerfully in collecting the scattered ministries and coordinating executive performance inside the temporary capital. In exceptional meetings, inside temporary offices combining residence and work, fateful decisions were crafted that formed the backbone of the state and kept it united.

Also, the Ministry of Water Resources faced a dual challenge in securing irrigation of agricultural projects and ensuring the stability of electricity supplies, especially after thermal stations were targeted. According to Engineer Doa al‑Bayt, the ministry managed the operation of reservoirs with a high degree of efficiency, complementing a vital void in infrastructure, granting the state a necessary margin in preserving services.

According to #Face_of_Truth, what happened in that phase is an invisible chapter from the book of national resilience. The assigned ministers did not speak much, but their actions said enough: the state remained upright, because there were those who believed that responsibility is not a post, but an ethical and national commitment in the moment of truth and history.

Stay well and in health.

Sunday 21 August 2025

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