As fighting rages, Sudanese ask: Who is the army fighting?

Sudan was amidst an economic crisis in late 2018 when massive protests erupted.

Security forces responded with gunfire and tear gas. In April 2019, protesters staged a sit-in outside army headquarters in Khartoum, and shortly afterward, the army detained President Omar al-Bashir.

The protesters continued their sit-in to demand civilian rule. That same month, Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule over the country ended. Then came a transitional period leading to elections in August. Civilian forces supporting the uprising agreed to share power with the army.

Civilian leaders arrested

Later, Abdallah Hamdok, an economist and former official at the United Nations, was appointed prime minister. But within a few months, security forces arrested Hamdok and many civilian leaders.

Army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced a state of emergency on state television after dissolving the transitional authorities and dismissing a significant number of government members and civilians sitting on the Sovereignty Council, which was responsible for leading the country during its transitional period.

Read more: Al Burhan: The reluctant ruler of Sudan

Two military leaders on one transitional council

After international pressure and the Security Council's call to re-form a transitional government led by civilians, al-Burhan formed a new transitional sovereignty council, which he chaired.

Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – known as Hemedti –  commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF), retained his position as Vice President of the council.

The protests continued until an agreement was announced between the army and Hamdok, who was reinstated as prime minister. However, he soon resigned from his post amid continuous protests and further fatalities.

At the end of last year, al-Burhan and Hemedti, along with several civilian forces, signed a framework agreement in preparation for the formation of a transitional civilian authority.

But once again, the military hindered implementation, due to differences over whether the army would submit to civilian authority and disagreements regarding plans to integrate the RSF into the general armed forces.

Read more: Explainer: Why are military forces fighting each other in Sudan?

It was only a matter of days until the dispute turned into armed conflict between the army, led by al-Burhan, and the RSF led by Hemedti.

Civilians in Sudan are now once again paying the price of this conflict by the minute. The humanitarian situation of millions of people keeps worsening due to the two men struggling for power. 

As is customary, the military is capable of voluminous words claiming that the war was imposed on them and that they have the best interests of the country and its people at heart. In reality, it is the ordinary people of coup-prone republics that pay the bill for these military adventures and this greed.

Massacres in Darfur

Hemedti started out in life as a camel trader and went on to become the leader of the Janjaweed, the armed group that crushed the rebel opposition in Darfur under the orders of al-Bashir. He then became a lieutenant general in Sudan and the second most powerful man in the country.

Read more: Hemedti: From camel trader to second most powerful man in Sudan

Given his involvement in the massacres of Darfur, which claimed the lives of more than 300,000 civilians, how can this man be a partner in the civil democratic transition in the country?

How can an armed militia -- which was allowed to roam freely for years without any accountability -- accept being integrated into the army?

The question is complicated further by Hemedti's control of Sudan's enormous gold reserves, which has generated a fortune for him while the country's people suffer from poverty.

How can the Sudanese believe that Hemedti is defending democracy and the state when he refuses to submit to the apparatus of the state?

These questions do not mean that al-Burhan is a champion for democracy.

His clash with a rival military leader is more a fight for power and the benefits it brings. It is a fight for Sudan's wealth. Nonetheless, victory for the general army over the militia would be a first step towards Sudan's salvation, although it does not seem to be close.

Sudan's destruction is primarily the responsibility of the military. But the country's political movements and its parties, many with deep roots, are not absolved from blame.  

Political failings

With a diverse range of ethnic, racial, and religious groups in Sudan, many of them used the army in their political struggles against each other until the army started playing its own game, especially after tasting the sweetness of power.

Perhaps Hassan al-Turabi, who hired Omar al-Bashir to overthrow his opponent, is the best example of this, when al-Bashir went on secure power in Khartoum, al-Turabi became the ruler's first victim.

Whatever comes next in this troubled country, there are a range of unanswered questions that echo over it: Who brought the army out of its barracks? Who changed the direction in which the weapons point? How did armies of Arab republics end up fighting their own people?

It has been years, but the question of the Lebanese-Palestinian journalist of An-Nahar, Samir Kassir, continues to resonate: Who is the army fighting?