Islamists wield hidden hand in Sudan conflict, military sources say
Send a link to a friend
[June 28, 2023]
By Khalid Abdelaziz
DUBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of men who worked as intelligence operatives
under former president Omar al-Bashir and have ties to his Islamist
movement are fighting alongside the army in Sudan's war, three military
sources and one intelligence source said, complicating efforts to end
the bloodshed.
The army and a paramilitary force have been battling each other in
Khartoum, Darfur and elsewhere for 10 weeks in Africa's third largest
country by area, displacing 2.5 million people, causing a humanitarian
crisis and threatening to destabilise the region. Reinforcements for
either side could deepen the conflict.
The army has long denied accusations by its rivals in the Rapid Support
Forces (RSF) that it depends on discredited loyalists of Bashir, an
Islamist long shunned by the West, who was toppled during a popular
uprising in 2019.
In response to a question from Reuters for this article, an army
official said: "The Sudanese army has no relation with any political
party or ideologue. It is a professional institution."
Yet the three military sources and an intelligence source said thousands
of Islamists were battling alongside the army.
"Around 6,000 members of the intelligence agency joined the army several
weeks before the conflict," said a military official familiar with the
army's operations, speaking on condition on anonymity.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/28/images/ads/current/bees_lda_HEROES_2023.png)
"They are fighting to save the country."
Former officials of the country's now-disbanded National Intelligence
and Security Service (NISS), a powerful institution composed mainly of
Islamists, confirmed these numbers.
An Islamist resurgence in Sudan could complicate how regional powers
deal with the army, hamper any move towards civilian rule and ultimately
set the country, which once hosted al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, on
a path for more internal conflict and international isolation.
Reuters spoke to 10 sources for this article, including military and
intelligence sources and several Islamists.
In a development indicative of Islamist involvement, an Islamist fighter
named Mohammed al-Fadl was killed this month in clashes between RSF
forces and the army, said family members and Islamists. He had been
fighting alongside the army, they said.
Ali Karti, secretary general of Sudan's main Islamic organisation, sent
a statement of condolences for al-Fadl.
'OUR IDENTITY AND OUR RELIGION'
"We are fighting and supporting the army to protect our country from
external intervention and keep our identity and our religion," said one
Islamist fighting alongside the army.
Bashir's former ruling National Congress Party said in a statement it
had no ties to the fighting and only backed the army politically.
The army accused the RSF of promoting Islamists and former regime
loyalists in their top ranks, a charge the RSF denied. Army chief Abdel
Fattah Burhan, who analysts see as a non-ideological army man, has
publicly dismissed claims that Islamists are helping his forces. "Where
are they?" he cried out to cheering troops in a video posted in May.
The military, which under Bashir had many Islamist officers, has been a
dominant force in Sudan for decades, staging coups, fighting internal
wars and amassing economic holdings.
But following the overthrow of Bashir, Burhan developed good ties with
states that have worked against Islamists in the region, notably the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Gulf states
provided Khartoum with significant aid.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/28/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/062823PIX/news_a76.jpg)
Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan
Dagalo, deputy head of the military council and head of paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces (RSF), greets his supporters as he arrives at a
meeting in Aprag village, 60 kilometers away from Khartoum, Sudan,
June 22, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/28/images/ads/current/bennet_lda_010722.png)
Nowadays, former NISS officers also help the military by collecting
intelligence on its enemies in the latest conflict. The NISS was
replaced by the General Intelligence Service (GIS) after Bashir was
toppled, and stripped of its armed "operations" unit, according to a
constitutional agreement.
Most of the men from that unit have sided with the army, but some
former operations unit members and Islamists who served under Bashir
entered the RSF, one army source and one intelligence source said.
"We are working in a very hard situation on the ground to back up
the army, especially with information about RSF troops and their
deployment," said a GIS official.
BASHIR-ERA VETERANS
The army outnumbers the RSF nationally, but analysts say it has
little capacity for street fighting because it outsourced previous
wars in remote regions to militias. Those militias include the "Janjaweed"
that helped crush an insurgency in Darfur and later developed into
the RSF.
Nimble RSF units have occupied large areas of Khartoum and this week
took control of the main base of the Central Reserve Police, a force
that the army had deployed in ground combat in the capital. They
seized large amounts of weaponry.
But the army, which has depended mainly on air strikes and heavy
artillery, could benefit from GIS intelligence gathering skills
honed over decades as it tries to root out the RSF.
On June 7, fire engulfed the intelligence headquarters in a disputed
area in central Khartoum. Both sides accused the other of attacking
the building.
After Burhan and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as
Hemedti, carried out a coup in 2021 which derailed a transition to
democracy, Hemedti said the move was a mistake and warned it would
encourage Islamists to seek power.
Regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and the UAE had seen Sudan's
transition towards democracy as a way to counter Islamist influence
in the region, which they consider a threat.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png)
Publicly, the army has asserted its loyalty to the uprising that
ousted Bashir in 2019.
But after the military staged a coup in 2021 that provoked a
resurgence of mass street protests, it leaned on Bashir-era veterans
to keep the country running. A taskforce that had been working to
dismantle the former ruling system was disbanded.
Before the outbreak of violence, Bashir supporters had been lobbying
against a plan for a transition to elections under a civilian
government. Disputes over the chain of command and the structure of
the military under the plan triggered the fighting.
About a week after fighting broke out in April, a video on social
media showed about a dozen former intelligence officials in army
uniforms announcing themselves as reserve forces.
The footage could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Several senior Bashir loyalists walked free from prison in Bahri,
across the Nile from central Khartoum, during a wider prison break
amid fighting in late April. The circumstances of their release
remain unclear. Bashir is in a military hospital.
(Writing by Michael Georgy and Aidan Lewis, Editing by William
Maclean)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |