Sudanese Prosecutor's Office announces discovery of mass grave of Omar al-Bashir-era victims
Sudan is moving towards a new phase and is trying to leave behind the Islamist heritage of Omar al-Bashir, who ruled with an iron fist until he was ousted from power in April 2019 after 30 years in power. But that does not mean the Sudanese have forgotten their past. The nation's institutions are working tirelessly to unearth the crimes of the previous regime. Proof of this is the announcement by the Attorney General's Office this Friday. The agency announced the discovery of a new mass grave containing the remains of 28 army officers allegedly killed by the regime in 1990 in a press release, according to the Emirate-based Al-Ain News.
Up to 23 experts in various fields have been investigating these events for three weeks to clarify the killing of 28 army officers during Ramadan in 1990. The investigations have led to the discovery of the mass grave. The committee of specialists and the prosecutor's office will do everything necessary to complete the procedures to recover the bodies and give them a dignified burial.
The area where the remains of these officers have been found has been cordoned off by the Armed Forces to prevent outsiders from approaching the area until all procedures have been completed. The Attorney General has assured the families of the victims that these events will not go unpunished and a thorough investigation will be conducted to find those responsible for this massacre.
Sudan is trying to reform its institutions and leave behind the Islamist dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir. Sudan has become a new contested area of influence between Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on the one hand, and Turkey and Qatar on the other. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have helped Sudan financially by transferring money, oil, food or medicine. They have also provided Khartoum with access to soft loans.
The capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been the scene of political negotiations between armed groups and the Government of Sudan. Egypt, a Saudi Arabian ally, has used diplomacy within the African Union to support the position of the central government in Khartoum. Riyadh also showed its support for the generals who took control of the government after the coup d'état that overthrew Omar al-Bashir. Turkey and Qatar, on the other hand, are on the side of the Islamist movements.
Thus, the geopolitical position of Sudan has changed after the "Arab Spring". In 2017, the United States lifted sanctions against the country, which considered it a nation that promoted terrorism. Sudan also cancelled all its defence agreements with North Korea last June. Little by little, Khartoum has been abandoning the influence of the Islamists and Iran to move closer to the Sunni positions, closer to Saudi Arabia and the Western orbit.
As a consequence of the new political situation in the country, investigations into the crimes of the dictatorship have begun and every few years mass graves of people who were murdered under the iron rule of Omar al-Bashir are discovered. In mid-June, a grave was found south-east of the capital, in Khartoum, where dozens of bodies had been buried since 1998. According to the country's prosecutor's office at the time, the bodies would belong to students who tried to escape military service that year, when they were denied permission to visit their families because of a Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha.
During Al-Bashir's time, compulsory military service became widespread during the civil war, which ended with a peace agreement in 2005 and then the secession of Southern Sudan in 2011. "Commanders and recruit trainers were often members of Bashir's government and allied groups who often framed the conflict against the SPLA, from the mainly Christian south, as a holy war," they explain since that publication. That is why the alleged killers of the students found in the grave were believed to be members of Al-Bashir's orbit and, moreover, to have escaped from the country, the Sudanese Prosecutor's Office reported at the time.