Sudan: Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) -Press Statement about (political process) – (12.10.2022)

The Executive Office of the Forces for Freedom and Change held a meeting on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 AD, in which it discussed the political developments in the country and listened to a report from the Communication and Foreign Relations Committee on the political process and its developments.

In this context, the Executive Office for Freedom and Change would like to clarify to the masses of the Sudanese people, local and international public opinion, the press and the media, as follows:

First: Following the success of the Steering Committee of the Sudanese Bar Association in gathering a wide range of political actors around the draft transitional constitution, which gained internal and external momentum, and the Forces of Freedom and Change were one of the actors in its development, positioning the project as an acceptable basis for ending the coup and establishing a real civil authority that implements the tasks and issues of the democratic transition.

Second: The coalition received, through informal contacts with the military component, evidence of accepting the draft transitional constitution as a basis for a political solution, with some limited comments on it. Accordingly, he formed a committee to receive these observations and pass them on to the coalition bodies to decide and study them.

Third: The Committee conveyed the notes to the meeting of the Executive Office, which decided to draft a paper that constitutes its position on the issues of ending the coup and establishing full democratic civil authority. Subject to consultation with the forces of the revolution and the forces that agree on the draft transitional constitution, to form an agreed basis among the broadest base of stakeholders in the civil democratic transformation.

Fourth: The Forces of Freedom and Change confirm that the news circulated about the existence of any agreement that has been reached is incorrect, and that it will not proceed with any political solution without a broad consensus that includes the forces of revolution and democratic transition.

Fifth: The Forces of Freedom and Change reaffirm their firm position that the acceptable political solution of the alliance is the one that leads to the complete closure of the coup, the establishment of a complete civil authority, and the disassociation of the military institution from political action and leading to a single professional and national army in accordance with comprehensive reforms with specific timings and procedures. It addresses issues of justice in a fair and comprehensive manner, dismantles the structure of the June 30, 1989 system, and leads to free and fair elections at the end of the transitional period that will enable the Sudanese people to express their free will and choose their representatives in a fair and transparent manner.

Finally: Freedom and Change urges the forces that resist the coup and adhere to the democratic transition and restore it to consolidate their ranks to complete the process of achieving the legitimate aspirations of our people for freedom, peace and justice in a democratic civil state.

We believe in our people’s ability to eventually win and realize their legitimate dreams and aspirations.

Executive Office – Forces of Freedom and Change

October 12, 2022 AD

Sudan: OCHA – Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan on relocation of IDPs in White Nile State (12.10.2022)

Sudan: Hamdok won’t change the spots of the leopard…

Al-Jarida newspaper reported that there are expectations to form a government of national competencies next week, headed by Dr. Abdallah Hamdok and Al-Tijani Al-Sisi as his deputy” (Abdallah Hussain, 07.10.2022).

If there is one thing we have learned over the years is that a leopard never changes it’s spots. The Transitional Sovereign Council is still in power with the same military commanders in power. Only changes are a few militia leaders who has also become associated with it. The Transitional Period and Agreements in coordination between the civilians and military was squashed on the 25th October 2021. So, the last time Hamdok was in-office and was the second coup d’etat of the Transitional Military Council, which took over after Al-Bashir.

We know that Al-Burhan and Hemeti has looked for legitimacy. They have sought out to be trusted and get recognition. Nevertheless, their violent, oppressive and obstruction of progress. Haven’t really helped their cause. A return nearly a year after the last coup d’etat will not help the current Sovereign Council either.

It isn’t like the Resistance Committees with their RCPP and CEPA will join along Hamdok now. Neither does it look like Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) is that interested either. There is little to no reasons for the civilians and the outcast parties to be involved. The army commanders and their role is subjectively to keep power and have a technocratic puppet to be the face of the government.

If Hamdok is foolish enough to return and accept a new agreement. That means he has not understood or accepted his real fate. He will not be respected, his role is wasted and his only a mere useless puppet for the army. This will not benefit the transition or the situation as is. The only thing it will does is to give leeway to the oppressors and the ones who will not acknowledge the will of the people and the end if junta government in Khartoum.

That Hamdok joins now will validate the 2019 and the 2021 coups. He is initially accepting it and partaking in it. Since he accept their leverage and takes up a role. The former Prime Minister isn’t a technocrat from the civilian organizations anymore. His coming as a civilian and a familiar face. The warlords are already part of the council and it’s not like Hamdok is getting lots of possible power. They wouldn’t have done a second coup and ousted him. To later give way to him. That doesn’t make sense. Especially not a year later…

We cannot expect the Resistance Committees, the Sudanese Professional Association or Forces for Freedom and Change being part of it now. The Transitional Sovereign Council is a military outfit now masked as a government. They have former rebels and warlords in its midsts. However, they haven’t incorporated civilians or the organizations of the Sudanese revolution.

This is where Hamdok is not reading the room. Maybe he wants the prestige and the office this time around. Nevertheless, his not coming with a mission or as a voice of reason. No, his just a pawn for Al-Burhan and Hemeti. This is not even funny, but instead very tragic.

If Hamdok thinks a leopard changes it’s spots, his a giant fool and toyed around with. There has been no changes or meaningful differences from the moment he was ousted. It isn’t like the Sovereign Council has offered or delivered anything of value either. That’s why Hamdok is a fool trusting the leopard and not expecting to violated yet again. Peace.

Sudan: Forces of Freedom and Change – Sudan’s Re-Election to the Human Rights Council must be rejected (06.10.2022)

The next elections for membership of the Human Rights Council are scheduled to take place in the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 11 October to decide which member states will sit on the Council for the next 3 year (2023-2025) membership term.

Sudan is standing for re-election despite a military junta taking over power in a coup on 25 October 2021.

Sudan was first elected to the Human Rights Council in October 2019 after the glorious December Revolution and the formation of the civilian-led government led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. However, Sudan was suspended from the African Union after its current unconstitutional regime abrogated the Constitutional Document of August 2019 and toppled the civilian-led government on 25 October 2021, thereby halting the democratic transition and reversing the progress that had been achieved. Despite suspending Sudan and condemning the military coup, the African Union has failed to withdraw its endorsement for Sudan’s re-election and Sudan is still included on the African Group’s “closed slate” of candidates for the African region, which means that there are the same number of candidates as there are seats. Hence Sudan will not face any competition from other African candidates for re-election.

The criteria for Council membership are set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 3 April 2006. Article 8 of this Resolution states that “when electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto”. Article 9 of this Resolution states that “members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights and fully cooperate with the Council”.

Far from promoting and protecting human rights, Sudan’s current unconstitutional regime has continuously and systematically violated the human rights of its citizens since 25 October 2021. For example, it has committed serious human rights violations against peaceful protestors, routinely using live ammunition. Around 120 peaceful protesters have been killed and thousands more injured. Insecurity, killings, human rights violations and hate speech have increased in Darfur, the Two Areas and eastern Sudan without any effective response from the de facto authorities. Human rights defenders and journalists have been harassed and women protestors have been raped. There have also been arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearances as well as extended internet shutdowns.

There is still no agreement on a clear plan for Sudan to transit out of the current chaotic situation and return to civilian democratic rule, with a government that commands broad popular support. On the contrary, the military junta has been facilitating the return of political Islamists from the terrorist regime of Omer al Bashir. The junta’s representatives in the Council have refused to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Moreover, the economic and social rights of Sudanese citizens have suffered severely as a result of the accelerating economic crisis since the coup, resulting in a sharp decline in living standards and rapidly increasing food insecurity.

We would therefore call on all UN member states to refrain from voting for Sudan by leaving the ballot blank and only voting for candidates who meet the criteria outlined in the Human Rights Council’s founding resolution 60/521. If Sudan fails to get a simple majority of votes (97) in the secret ballot election, its candidacy will be rejected, Given the regime’s track record of grave human rights violations, Sudan’s re-election for another three years, in current circumstances, would undermine the integrity and credibility of the Human Rights Council, would be a travesty of human rights values and would be a betrayal of the aspirations of the Sudanese people for freedom, peace and justice.

External Relations and Communications Committee – Forces of Freedom and Change

6 October 2022

Sudan: Sudanese Congress Party – Statement (17.09.2022)

Our party remained true to its democratic traditions even in the darkest hours of the tyranny years. His choice was clear that the gateway to partisan health was to open the doors and windows of renewal and openness so that he would not be affected by the diseases of calcification and closure.

During the past decades of life Sudanese Conference, the presented a unique experience in Sudanese political life when he made his way without relying on a cross-border sect or ideological creed or external support, but rather he continued to dig deep into the soil of this country to plant roots that tyranny projects did not succeed in uprooting.

We are now looking forward to the sixth conference of our party after it rose from the bases.. In the past months, the party held grassroots conferences in 121 localities, 17 states, and 13 professional factional conferences, in addition to its branches abroad that exceeded twenty and held a conference in which it elected its collective leadership, these days, the rest of the conferences are completed, leading to the General Conference in January, which will elect the party’s leadership and review its programs and structures.

In our party, we are waging the battle of institutional building and development on one front, fighting against totalitarianism, and opening the path to democratic transformation on another front, both of which feed each other, so the conference slogan is “Institutional Driving Change”.

The issue of building and developing institutions as a prerequisite for the consolidation of democracy has never been lost from our eyes, and we are happy to see the expansion of this culture in the civil milieu of unions and grass-roots civil bodies and others. The guarantee of civil democratic transformation is building solid democratic civil institutions Its roles are integrated and extended to expand this medium and increase its scope.

I am proud that I am part of this system that was built with the minds and effort of thousands of daughters and sons of this country, to put an imprint in the path of its construction and development that cannot be lost by the eye.

Sudan: Forces of Freedom and Change – Important Statement (14.09.2022)

The masses of our rebellious people:

The coup forces continue their violations against the Sudanese people of brutality and killing, leaving behind hundreds of martyrs and wounded in the face of the peaceful civil movement of our resistant people, demanding freedom, peace, justice and the establishment of a civil state.

Our Supporters:

The Forces for Freedom and Change have been working in the file of implementing justice through its various specialized committees, and in this context, we learned that the coup authorities, after many demands from the revolutionary forces and some organizations, allowed, in a very late step, the autopsy of the bodies found in mortuaries and hospitals.

Through a committee formed by the coup authority from several sides, including the criminal evidence, the judicial authorities, the Public Prosecution, the Director General of the Police and some relevant international organizations as claimed by the current de-facto authority, and in the complete absence of a presentation of the reasons for the establishment of this committee and its tasks, and the doubts surrounding it, the loss of confidence in the coup authority, and the lack of transparency and clarity in its actions, we demand the following:

First: Condemning the government’s inhumane treatment of these corpses and the failure to take the necessary measures to ensure that the families of the missing are able to identify them over the past period.

Second: We call on the authorities that undertake this work to work transparently in taking criminal and legal procedures and preserving evidence, and we warn against tampering with evidence, which may lead to concealing the circumstances and reasons in which these lives were lost, ensuring access to the perpetrators and enforcement of justice in accordance with the recognized legal procedures regarding the data of those bodies, starting with naming the notifying policeman, the date and place of finding the body, the autopsy report to determine the time and circumstances of death, keeping the genetic fingerprints of any of the bodies, and the necessity of burial in a known grave to facilitate the process of identifying the owner of the body in the future and matching the genetic fingerprints with any of the persons who match it.

Third: The Forces of Freedom and Change request and support the demands of the families of the martyrs and the missing from specialized international organizations, regional institutions and United Nations bodies interest in advocating this humanitarian issue that concerns all the Sudanese people so that the law is applied and justice is achieved.

Fourth: Demanding justice for the martyrs, prosecuting the killers, revealing secret hideouts and detention facilities, all methods of enforced disappearance, and revealing the fate of the missing.

Fifth: The judicial and judicial authorities’ dealings with the accused and the perpetrators is tainted by suspicion. The judicial authorities release the convicts and fail to conduct trials for those accused of sniping and killing the martyrs.

We affirm that we will continue to follow this file with vigilance and diligence, and to inform our people and the local and external public opinion of any developments and developments related to it.

Committee of Martyrs, Wounded and Missing – Forces of Freedom and Change

September 14, 2022

Sudan: Statement by Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect on the recent visit of the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim A. A. Khan to Darfur, Sudan (08.09.2022)

Sudan: Forces of Freedom and Change – Important Statement about Initiative of the Bar Association Steering Committee to Draft the Transitional Constitution (08.09.2022)

We followed with interest and appreciation the enlightenment presented by the Steering Committee of the Sudanese Bar Association on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 AD, and its announcement of the completion of the drafting of the transitional constitution as a prelude to the next step, the project is presented to the various parties, actors and stakeholders in order to agree on a constitutional declaration to manage the transitional phase and form a basis for establishing a tight, democratic civil transition that rises on the ruins of the October 25 coup.

In the Forces of Freedom and Change, we affirm our continued support and support for the subsequent steps of the Sudanese Bar Association initiative and our readiness to engage seriously in the later stages of the discussions. In continuation to our continuous role and duty during the previous stages since the launch of the Bar Association initiative and its discussions until reaching the draft constitutional declaration.

We call on all civil, democratic political components and the resistance committees to seriously engage in the discussion of this draft in order to reach agreement on a constitutional framework governing the transitional period it achieves the legitimate aspirations of the Sudanese people in a civil and democratic state, ending and defeating the coup and restoring the democratic transition.

Executive Office – Forces of Freedom and Change

September 8, 2022 AD

Sudan: Ombada Resistance Committees Coordination – Political Freedom (31.08.2022)

Freedom is the ultimate value for which generations of Sudanese men and women have fought throughout the history of the Sudanese national movement.

Years of authoritarian military leadership have tarnished our history by tightening its grasp on the right to speak, confiscating all different voices, and only allowing the chorus of its followers in every period to rumble in the people’s ears with the call for submission.

In this frame of reference, the glorious December revolution came to restore this right. Following the rule of the coup regime of 30 June 1989 A.D., professional and labor unions were dissolved and political activity in the country and all free forums were halted, and began to open in ghost houses to abuse, torture, and murder the daughters and sons of our honorable people who have resisted it from the start. Despite the price of the word at that time, the student and professional movement sacrificed a large number of martyrs for the sake of the country’s and people’s freedom, as well as the cessation of killing and imprisonment for expression of opinion and disagreement.

As a result, We in Ombada Resistance Committees Coordination, reiterate—first to ourselves and then to our fellow members of the resistance committees—what we have repeatedly stated: that difference is not a reason for disagreement, but rather a fact that needs to be handled and managed democratically, not by canceling and criminalizing the other. The right of political forces to communicate with their masses is guaranteed by law and must be protected, and it is the right of all forces of democracy, change, and resistance to hold seminars and events at any time and place, and for them to be judged based on this original principle and nothing else, in order to achieve our common goal of overthrowing the coup of October 25th.

Media & Culture Office

Ombada Resistance Committees Coordination

August 31, 2022

Sudan: Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) – Press Release (01.09.2022)

Yesterday, Wednesday, August 31, 2022 AD, a procession witnessed the continued practice of the coup authorities’ repression and violence against peaceful demonstrators, which led to the martyrdom of the martyr Hatem Najmuddin Obaid Koko after he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister, he was then run over, according to eyewitnesses, by a vehicle belonging to the coup forces.

The martyr Hatem Najm Al-Din Obaid Koko holds the number 117 among his peers, the martyrs who were presented by the Sudanese people during the resistance to the coup of October 25, 2021 AD in parallel with the thousands of injured and injured as a result of the systematic violence of the coup forces.

In contrast to the usual violence by the coup forces, medical sources reported that the procedures for completing the exhumation of the body of the martyr Hatem Najm al-Din from the mortuary witnessed a deliberate delay and attempts to falsify and modify the reasons and place of martyrdom.

Referring to its occurrence in the hospital or as a result of a traffic accident, which was rejected by the doctors. This behavior reflects the new tendencies of some elements of the coup forces to falsify and manipulate facts, a behavior that besides violating the law, it contradicts morals and professionalism.

In addition to what was mentioned above, eyewitnesses attributed practices of violation of control and linkage to some employees of the coup forces on the evening of Wednesday, August 31, hours after the convoy ended by firing tear gas indiscriminately at citizens and shops on Airport Street.

The behavior of the coup and its elements confirms their systematic, deliberate and growing violence due to the lack of accountability for abuses; And the lack of the professional aspect when performing the duty and tasks in a way that confirms the necessity of ending and defeating this coup, the rule of law and the reform of large sectors of the regular forces in order to carry out its duties to the fullest extent, by applying the law in a professional, disciplined and professional manner based on protecting the people and respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We believe that our people will defeat tyrannical tyrants as they defeated those who preceded them, and that the sacrifices of the Sudanese men and women for freedom, democracy and peace will reach their limit on a near victory day; We renew our call to all the revolutionary forces for unity and joint action to end this coup and defeat it and restore the democratic transition again.

We ask God Almighty to the martyr of August 31, 2022 AD Hatem Najmuddin Obaid Koko mercy and forgiveness and to his family and relatives patience and good condolences and to expedite the full recovery of all the wounded and injured, reveal the fate of the missing, and reunite them, whether they are alive or martyrs; The people of Sudan are victorious over the tyrants who killed the people and plundered the country. A victory is not far away.

Our people are Mansour and the coup is defeated.

Forces of Freedom and Change – Media Committee

Thursday 1 September 2022