SRF, Umma party to form coalition supporting transition in Sudan

Source: 
Sudan Tribune
Publication date: 
Jan 11 2021

The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the National Umma Party (NUP) agreed to form a new political coalition to support a smooth democratic transition in Sudan, said the deputy leader of the SPLM-N Agar on Sunday.

"The SRF and the NUP agreed to start work on forming a transitional bloc. Also, they established a joint working committee," Yasir Arman, told the Sudan Tribune.

Arman pointed out that the current period is dominated by major intersections and pitfalls, besides the existence of multiple decision centres in the country. He further added that the forces supporting the revolution and democratic change are not a solid bloc but include different political groups that are not homogeneous.

"Therefore, when we talk about transitional bloc, we are talking about expanding the social base (needed to achieve the political transition in Sudan)," he stressed.

The SRF and the NUP had signed a political declaration in 2014 and formed the Sudan Call before to establish the Forces for Freedom and Change together with other democratic political and professional groups in January 2019.

However, following the fall of the al-Bashir’s regime, the SRF called for a peace process to discuss the issues of the regions they represent and gradually distanced themselves from the FFC. In the same vein, the NUP withdrew from the FFC leadership calling to reform the structures of the ruling coalition.

Arman said that the proposed coalition is not a substitute for the existing institutions of the transitional authority.

"We are talking about a different issue, which is expanding the social base by uniting the different forces of the revolution. The transition will not take place smoothly unless there is a broad social base," he stressed.

He said that the dialogue between the forces of revolution was interrupted, instead, they now trade accusations of treason and betrayal, which should be repealed from the dictionary of the democratic forces, as he said.

The RSF leading member stressed the need for a real and necessary dialogue between civilians and the military to achieve the goals of the transition. So that the military would participate in the transition but neither party would seek to control the other.

Arman said that these meetings would be extended to include the FFC, the Prime Minister, the Resistance Committees and women’s organizations.

"We want to achieve and complete the stated goals of the revolution in freedom, peace and change. This is what we must move towards and through the formation of a transitional bloc," he added.

After the fall of the former regime in April 2019 after four months of popular protests in Sudan, the military formed the Transitional Military Council and refused to hand power over to the political parties.

The situation turned into a confrontation when the security forces killed over 200 civilians on 3 June 2019 but they accepted to form a civilian transitional government in August 2019.

However, their presence in the government remains contested by many political forces. Also, the relations between some SRF factions and the political forces remain tense and full of mistrust.

 

Source: https://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article70323