The Islamist threat over Sudan

The transition to a fully civilian government, and subsequently to democracy, in Sudan is being overshadowed by threats to the country aimed at destabilizing the process. Among these, the Muslim Brotherhood stands out, without a doubt, as it managed to influence all public and private spheres of the African nation during the mandate of Omar al-Bashir (1989-2019), who was removed from power on 11 April last year.

The government of the new Prime Minister, the economist Abdalla Hamdok, has made the fight against this organization of Egyptian roots into one of its top priorities. Since his arrival in office in August, he has taken a number of steps to eradicate the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood. The expulsion of members linked to the group from the highest public and private spheres, such as the civil service, the Fiqh Islamic Academy - they have even been forced to leave the national territory - or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the elimination of their obsolete requirements for obtaining university degrees, or the control of the media affiliated to the organization to prevent the spread of Islamist proclamations, are some of the measures that have been taken in recent months.

The most recent ones have taken place in the last week. On the one hand, the country's police have announced the arrest of 30 people who were participating in one of the demonstrations organized by the so-called 'United People's Movement' - the activist arm of the Brotherhood - against the management of the coronavirus crisis by the Khartoum Executive. "Through these movements, the group seeks, according to observers, to preserve the interests they have earned over the past three decades, as well as to try to disrupt their dismantling operations led by the transitional authority," Al-Ain explains.

On the other hand, and along these lines, the Hamdok government has announced the creation of a joint force command to direct the "dismantling" operations of the Muslim Brothers. Although the specific details have not yet been released, the publication has revealed that it will be formed "in the next few days" and will be composed of personnel from the Armed Forces, the Police, the paramilitary network of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - traditionally loyal to the former regime - and units from the intelligence services. 

In this context, it should be pointed out that, at the end of last year, the Khartoum Executive announced the formation of a Committee to carry out the same function. The organization is currently headed by General Yasser al-Atta, who is supported by Muhammad al-Faki Silman and Omar Manis as his deputies; it includes members from the Ministries of Defense, the Interior, Justice and Finance, the Federal Government, the Central Bank and the National Audit Office, and the civilian coalition, the Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFCF/FCC). Recent achievements include the confiscation of property of senior officials of the Al-Bashir leadership or the recording of the assets of members of the former regime's network, for their subsequent confiscation.

Another action taken recently has been the issuing of a declaration by the authorities of the transitional government, ratified by the President of the Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and by the Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, on the roadmap to be followed to "eliminate the Brotherhood as soon as possible". In the document, both parties also agreed to activate new mechanisms to increase the effectiveness of the Committee's work. 

In addition to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sudanese authorities face another challenge to their security today led by the Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir (HUT), founded in 1953 with the mission of imposing a world caliphate. The latest figures show that it has more than one million members in more than 40 countries, including Sudan, where it has always operated under the umbrella of the Brotherhood.

As the analyst José Luis Mansilla (@Sahel_Intel) explains in one of his last published articles, the intensification of pressure by the government against the Muslim Brothers, which is causing the loss of influence of the group and even its departure from the country, has allowed the "liberation" of HUT, which undoubtedly carries with it a new threat to the African nation. "After almost 30 years, they have managed to free themselves, and now that they have done so, they find that HUT is expanding its discourse by occupying the space left by the departure of the Brotherhood. The former followers of the Muslim Brotherhood are being included in this group which, if it is not controlled, will end up in the same drift as the previous one [...]", warns Mansilla. 

"HUT has recently distributed a victimistic speech in the capitals and various regions of Sudan, not only to its followers but to the Muslim community in general, emphasizing on the need to establish a caliphate [...] even asking for the support of Muslim armies to do so," the expert notes.  

Although HUT is banned in countries such as Germany, Russia, China, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and almost all Arab countries, as Mansilla recalls, in Sudan it "has" some public recognition. On its official website, 114 audiovisual archives can be accessed, ranging from rallies in the capital, Khartoum, to overcrowded conferences or "educational" seminars on the country's economic crisis. One such document, published on 21 November 2019 under the title "Political Discourse on Islam as an Integral System of Life", is worth noting here. In the images in the archive, one can see a person with a microphone giving a sermon in front of about twenty people in the middle of the street.

Among his proclamations is the need to recover Islam as a "way of life," because " since the fall of the Caliphate, it has been absent from the arena of international struggle" for two reasons: on the one hand, "that Muslims confine Islam solely to belief and adoration" and, on the other hand, for "capitalist domination of the world, led by the United States". These messages, along with the use of a black flag - similar to the Daesh - as a symbol, would bring HUT dangerously close to the extremist ideology of other, more radical and even jihadist groups.