Sudanese public widely rejects new UN initiative
A number of Sudan's major civilian groups have shown skepticism toward UN efforts to help.
Following the resignation of Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in early January, the head of the UN mission in the country, Volker Perthes, announced on Jan. 8. the launch of an intra-Sudanese political process facilitated by the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) and aimed at finding a way out of the crisis that has engulfed Sudan since the military takeover on Oct. 25.
Despite being the only process of its kind currently in place, the proposal quickly proved to be highly controversial. So far, the initiative has only been welcomed by the international community and, on paper, by Sudan’s military-led Sovereignty Council. The country’s main civilian groups, to the contrary, have categorically rejected the offer.
The latter’s stance has again revealed the deep distrust of Sudan’s revolutionary groups toward Perthes and the UN mission, especially following their endorsement of the widely rejected agreement between Hamdok and the coup generals on Nov. 21 and their insistence on rescuing a pre-coup transition that codified the political prevalence of the military. To overcome the lack of credibility of both the broker and the process, many Sudanese argue, mediation mechanisms should break with the approach pursued up to now and put forward one that accounts and adapts to the demands and nature of the street.
“The categorical rejection of the plan has to do with the process and UNITAMS, and by extension the international community,” said Kholood Khair, managing partner of the think tank Insight Strategy Partners in Khartoum, to Al-Monitor. “The transition and the [constitutional] document are no longer valid; there is no way to reform that document after the coup. There’s no going back, and the process is framed as going back,” she added.
