Sudan: Civilian Front to End War.. Whats Its Depth?
Yusuf Hamad
After six months of violent fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, starting from the capital Khartoum, the activities of the (Civilian Front for Stopping the War and Restoring the Democratic Path) have recently begun in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, separately from both parties. This is a new political vision that enjoys the support of significant political parties with similar views on Sudan and the Sudanese political problem, as well as being joined by unions, resistance committees, civil society organizations, and armed struggle movements. This front finds support in regional and international political organizations that see the stability of Sudan as a priority for them.
It was noteworthy that the Prime Minister, Dr. Abdallah Hamdok, who was overthrown by the military on October 25, 2012, and has remained silent on public political participation since that date, participated in the initial deliberations of the fronts work. The announcement of the fronts activity is also accompanied by a readiness to resume negotiations between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in the Saudi city of Jeddah, after confrontations from both parties led to their suspension for months. These negotiations are expected to lead to a permanent cessation of military operations and the creation of safe routes for delivering humanitarian aid to millions affected by the fighting.
Over the coming days, participants in Addis Ababa will be occupied with preparing for the first general conference of the front, in terms of the conferences timing, location, and final agenda. They will also discuss how to expand the civilian alliance by involving parties aligned with stopping the war, so the alliance takes its deserved name: Stopping the War and Restoring the Overturned Democratic Path. Alongside this, they will formulate an urgent economic and humanitarian vision to alleviate the effects of the war, which have reached unprecedented humanitarian dimensions in modern Sudanese history.
So far, this newly-formed alliance can be viewed as the closest to playing a political role in shaping the new post-war Sudanese reality. However, it is not too early to warn of the political disagreement seed that preceded and accompanied the preparation for the (Framework Agreement on December 5, 2022), as the Sudanese Communist Party, the Socialist Baath Party, and other forces represented in the advocates of (Radical Change) are absent from the Addis Ababa deliberations. This suggests that the broad Civilian Front may be a slightly magnified picture of the mood and imagination of the very last version of the (Forces of Freedom and Change).
