Who is Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the military strongman behind Sudan coup? – National

The final main Sudan’s coup has vowed to usher the nation to an elected authorities. However Abdel-Fattah Burhan has highly effective allies, together with Gulf nations and a feared Sudanese paramilitary commander, and he seems intent on retaining the army firmly in management.

Burhan first gained prominence in 2019, when he and different high generals toppled Omar al-Bashir, below strain from mass demonstrations towards the autocrat’s 30-year rule.

He remained in cost for a number of months, till worldwide strain pressured the army to achieve a power-sharing cope with the protesters. That established a joint civilian-military Sovereign Council headed by Burhan that was speculated to rule Sudan till elections, set for 2023.

Burhan’s file was comparatively clear and he was not indicted by The Worldwide Prison Courtroom like al-Bashir and others for crimes towards humanity through the Darfur battle of the early 2000s. He was a uncommon non-Islamist among the many high generals throughout al-Bashir’s military-Islamist regime. That helped Sudan emerge from the worldwide pariah standing it had below al-Bashir.

On Monday, Burhan swept away the vestiges of civilian authorities. He dissolved the Sovereign Council and the transitional authorities, detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and different officers, and declared a state of emergency. Hamdok was launched Tuesday, however others stay in custody.

The takeover got here simply weeks earlier than Burhan, 61, was scheduled to get replaced by a civilian as head of the council. He has promised that the army will hand over energy as soon as a authorities is elected in July 2023.

Civilian management wouldn’t solely undermine the army’s political energy, but in addition threaten its in depth monetary assets and will result in prosecutions for rights violations prior to now 30 years.

Burhan has been backed lately by Egypt, led by a general-turned-president, and Gulf international locations, significantly the United Arab Emirates. He skilled in Egypt’s army faculty and has made a number of visits since 2019 to the Emirates’ de-facto ruler, Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In an indication of the decisive behind-the-scenes position of Gulf international locations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the international minister of regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia about Sudan on Tuesday. A State Division assertion mentioned each males condemned the army takeover.

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On Monday, Egypt and a few of the Gulf international locations had prevented criticizing the coup, calling as a substitute for calm and dialogue.

“There’s a common desire for a robust army chief who may be very transactional. That matches Gulf pursuits greater than a democratic authorities,” mentioned Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. State Division official and Sudan knowledgeable on the Atlantic Council’s Africa Middle.

“They’re terrified of what an Arab Spring success story appears to be like like,” he mentioned, referring to the uprisings in 2011 that helped encourage the Sudanese protests.

Additionally standing behind Burhan is one other common, one who’s extra feared: Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the Fast Assist Forces — a paramilitary unit that grew out of the al-Bashir-backed Janjaweed militias infamous for atrocities and rapes through the Darfur battle.

RSF fighters had been outstanding in Monday’s coup, participating in arresting Hamdok and different senior officers and clamping down within the streets. The drive is just about a “de facto parallel military of tens of 1000’s of battle-tested fighters,” mentioned Suliman Baldo, senior adviser at The Sentry, an investigative and coverage group specializing in conflict crimes in Africa.

Burhan has a protracted reference to Dagalo, who’s also called Hemedti. Burhan was a commander in Darfur, the place the army and RSF waged a brutal marketing campaign to crush an insurgency, Baldo mentioned. As many as 300,000 individuals had been killed and a pair of.7 million had been displaced in a marketing campaign of mass rape and abuse.

He distanced himself from the atrocities, as soon as telling the BBC, “I’m not liable for any unhealthy actions in Darfur… So far as I’m involved, I used to be combating an enemy simply as all common forces do.”

In 2015, Burhan and Dagalo coordinated the deployment of Sudanese troops and RSF fighters to Yemen to combat with the Saudi-led coalition towards Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels. Their forces acquired hefty funds from the Saudis and Emiratis, constructing these international locations’ connections to the 2 commanders.

Within the rebellion towards al-Bashir, Burhan and Dagalo refused orders to violently disperse the protesters and even met with them at their sit-in camp. Behind the scenes, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates inspired them to push out al-Bashir.

However protests continued after al-Bashir’s fall, with calls for for the army to surrender. On June 2, 2019, safety forces and RSF fighters attacked the protesters. Greater than 100 individuals had been killed, and troopers raped dozens of ladies. Prosecutors blamed paramilitary forces, however the bloodshed stained Burhan and Dagalo within the eyes of protesters.

“Burhan was accountable as a result of he was the chief, it’s that easy,” mentioned Osman Mirgany, a Khartoum-based columnist and editor of the each day al-Tayar. “He promised to not contact the sit-in after which a bloodbath occurred. From that time on, individuals realized he would by no means maintain his guarantees.”

For the army’s opponents, that skepticism hangs over Burhan’s guarantees of civilian rule. Baldo, of the Sentry group, mentioned the overall and Dagalo are each intent on remaining free from civilian oversight.

Furthermore, he mentioned, they’re “involved about being held accountable for atrocity crimes dedicated below their command” — in Darfur and within the 2019 sit-in killings and rapes.

Related Press author Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed.