KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudan will “fight anyone who seeks to establish a parallel government,” a member of the country’s Sovereign Council said Tuesday.
Yasser Al-Atta, who also serves as assistant commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Army, made the comments while addressing members of the armed forces and their supporting units in the town of Al Dabba in northern Sudan, according to the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA).
His remarks came hours after the opening session of a conference titled “The Founding Alliance of Sudan” held in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference was organized by opposition forces and armed groups fighting the Sudanese army, with the goal of forming a parallel government.
According to an Anadolu reporter, the opening session was attended by the leaders of several armed groups and political figures, including National Umma Party leader Fadlallah Burma Nasir, Abdelrahim Dagalo, deputy commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and Abdelaziz al-Hilu, chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).
“To those who say they will form a parallel government, we will fight them on every inch of Sudanese land,” Al-Atta emphasized.
“We will teach the enemy (referring to the RSF) and the conspiratorial countries lessons in patriotism. The Sudanese people have now become the army of the Sudanese nation,” he added.
In a statement on behalf of the alliance at the Nairobi conference, National Umma Party leader Nasir announced that the signing of a political declaration would be delayed from Tuesday to Feb. 21.
Ibrahim Al-Mirghani, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party, told the conference that the components of the Founding Alliance had agreed to form a peace government, with the announcement to take place in Sudan, without specifying a location.
Kenyan authorities have not commented on the meetings held on their territory
Supporters of the formation of a parallel government include political forces that split from the Democratic Civilian Forces Coordinating Committee. This includes most of the components from the Revolutionary Front—armed movements that signed the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement—along with the Democratic Unionist Party led by Al-Mirghani.
Opponents of the parallel government include pro-army political groups within Sudan and others operating from abroad. Among them is the Democratic Civilian Forces Coordinating Committee, which was once the largest civilian opposition coalition, led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. On Feb.10, the committee announced its rejection of the parallel government, which led to a split into two factions, one of which called for the Nairobi conference.
The Sudanese army and the RSF have been fighting a war since mid-April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.
In Khartoum State, which consists of three cities, the army now controls 90% of Bahri in the north, most of Omdurman in the west, and 60% of central Khartoum, where the presidential palace and international airport are located. Army forces have nearly encircled these strategic sites, while RSF fighters remain entrenched in neighborhoods in the east and south.
Calls by the international community and the UN for an end to the war are mounting, with warnings of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as millions face famine and death due to food shortages. The conflict has spread to 13 of Sudan’s 18 states.
