Islamist politician regrets 30-year grip on power, defends South Sudan secession

KHARTOUM — A prominent Sudanese Islamist leader has expressed regret over the prolonged concentration of power during her movement’s three-decade rule under former President Omar al-Bashir, while defending the 2011 secession of South Sudan as a necessary and courageous political settlement.

Sanaa Hamad, a former minister, diplomat, and senior figure within the Sudanese Islamic Movement, made the comments during an interview broadcast Monday on Al Jazeera. Her remarks come as the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) enters its third year, prompting the national army to increasingly rely on volunteer militias to sustain its military operations.

Addressing the legacy of the National Congress Party (NCP), which dominated Sudanese politics from 1989 until mass protests led to Bashir’s ouster in 2019, Hamad acknowledged that the extended tenure of Islamist leadership produced significant structural weaknesses.

While she stopped short of condemning the entire period of Islamist rule, Hamad conceded that the failure to rotate leadership damaged the state apparatus.

“I cannot say that staying in power for 30 years is a mistake in the literal sense,” Hamad said. “However, the continuation of the ruling party and the president and the number of people in power for 30 years was a mistake.”

Hamad noted that many within the NCP and the Islamic Movement had pushed for internal reforms. She acknowledged that the highly centralized governance concentrated power in Khartoum, neglected peripheral regions, and suffered from a lack of institutional accountability and effective performance monitoring.

Despite the domestic crises that characterized the Bashir era, Hamad vigorously defended the Islamist government’s handling of South Sudan, which formally seceded in 2011 following a referendum.

The separation cost Sudan a massive portion of its territory and the majority of its oil reserves. Hamad framed the decision to allow the referendum as a moral responsibility designed to end a brutal civil war that had raged intermittently since 1955.

“The Islamists took a very respectful and courageous step,” she said. “They told the people of the South, if you want to be a part of Sudan, welcome, dear brothers. If you want to separate from Sudan, welcome, dear neighbors.”

Noting that 98 percent of South Sudanese voted for independence, Hamad argued that the political negotiation that enabled the split was a historic achievement.

“I think that the experience of Islamists in power and the experience of Islamists with South Sudan deserves appreciation,” she added.

Militia mobilization

Shifting to the current conflict, Hamad addressed mounting domestic and international concerns regarding the proliferation of pro-army Islamist militias, such as the Bara’a Ibn Malik brigade. Critics warn these volunteer formations could evolve into permanent, independent paramilitary forces similar to the RSF.

The RSF originally formed as a government-backed state militia in Darfur before developing into a massive semi-autonomous force that rebelled against the army establishment in April 2023.

Hamad rejected comparisons between the RSF and current volunteer units, arguing that groups like Bara’a Ibn Malik were formed strictly defensively and operate entirely under the SAF’s command structure.

“These groups were established under exceptional circumstances,” Hamad said. “They were established in response to an existential threat to the state … whose main target was the Sudanese citizens and their properties, as well as the institutions of the Sudanese state and the Sudanese army.”

She emphasized that the fighters are students, civil servants, and laborers who receive no financial compensation, hold no military ranks, and do not seek political power.

Volunteers draw their weapons from official army warehouses based on a personal pledge and are required to return the equipment to the military once hostilities conclude, she said.

Hamad also responded to recent comments by U.S. envoy Massad Boulos, who described diplomatic engagement with Sudan’s Islamic Movement as a “red line.”

While welcoming international dialogue, Hamad insisted that Sudan’s political future must be resolved internally through “Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue,” free from foreign dictates.

She explicitly accused the United Arab Emirates of prolonging the war by providing military support to the RSF, echoing persistent accusations made by the SAF and its allied factions.

“The main issue in Sudan is not the Sudanese. The issue is now in foreign intervention, in foreign support to continue this battle,” Hamad said. “If this issue was confined to the Sudanese among themselves, I don’t think it would have lasted all this time.”