{"id":20136423,"date":"2026-08-26T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/?p=20136423"},"modified":"2026-08-26T12:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T10:49:28","slug":"nup-deputy-leader-sudans-anti-war-forces-must-move-from-declarations-to-making-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/nup-deputy-leader-sudans-anti-war-forces-must-move-from-declarations-to-making-peace","title":{"rendered":"NUP deputy leader: Sudan\u2019s anti-war forces must move from declarations to making peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Report by Radio Dabanga<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi, deputy leader of the National Umma Party, has welcomed a joint position paper issued by Sudanese anti-war forces following a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, saying its importance lies not only in its content, but in its potential to pave the way for broader rapprochement among Sudan\u2019s civilian forces and help develop a more unified civilian position capable of exerting greater influence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a vision published on Monday, El Sadig said the document represented an important step on which to build, but stressed the need to address other aspects in order to turn an announced political position into action capable of influencing the course of the war and the prospects for peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agreement on ending the war and protecting civilians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Sadig said she agreed with the document\u2019s core principles, foremost among them the priority of ending the war and building peace, preserving Sudan\u2019s unity and sovereignty, and addressing the roots of the crisis in order to establish a civilian democratic state based on equal citizenship and the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also endorsed its emphasis on protecting civilians and opening humanitarian corridors, creating conditions for displaced people and refugees to return, addressing the humanitarian catastrophe, and laying the groundwork for justice, reconciliation, state-building, and economic reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said these principles could provide a broad common ground for Sudan\u2019s civilian forces, but added: \u201cThe real challenge begins after agreement on the principles: how do we move from declaring a position to having the ability to influence and implement?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warning against a new civilian alignment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criticising what she described as an approach based on categorising civilian forces, El Sadig said: \u201cSudan does not need another civilian alignment to add to the alignments that have weakened the civilian sphere throughout the years of war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She called for a move away from aligning behind the parties to the war towards a free national civilian space in which participation is based on standards and principles, and a commitment to peace, democracy, and citizens\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stressed that this did not mean abolishing political differences or bypassing political parties and organised forces. Instead, she said, there was a need to recognise the different components of Sudanese society, including political parties, trade unions, armed movements, traditional administrations, resistance committees, youth and women\u2019s initiatives, and other elements of civil society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is needed is to reform and strengthen the political and civilian sphere, not entrench divisions by creating new blocs that bypass its original components,\u201d she said. \u201cThe validity of the demands alone is not enough. Civilian forces need to build political and civilian capacity that gives these demands a real impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Sadig focused on the question of the means of exerting influence, arguing that calls for an end to the fighting, the protection of civilians, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and the creation of conditions for return and recovery, while necessary, were not enough to compel armed groups to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat makes the armed parties respond to them?\u201d she asked. \u201cAnd what tools do civilian forces have to exert influence, provide guarantees, follow up, and implement?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisis of trust and hate speech<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Sadig identified a lack of trust as one of the biggest obstacles to peace, genuine dialogue, and the launch of a political process. The crisis of trust, she said, \u201cis not limited to the relationship between civilians and the military\u201d. It also extends to relations among civilian forces themselves, between political forces and citizens, between citizens and armed groups, and among Sudanese communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also warned of the rise of hate speech, racism, and regionalism, and of rhetoric and expressions that encourage the division of the country and the fragmentation of its national fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating an environment conducive to peace, she said, was a shared responsibility among all components of society. But she noted that responsibility for building trust rested to a greater degree with \u201cthe side that possesses power and authority\u201d, through specific, binding, and monitorable measures backed by clear legal, security, and political guarantees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking up the war economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Umma Party deputy leader called for priority to be given to dismantling the war economy and the networks of interests that benefit from the continuation of the fighting. She said this issue should be addressed in the early stages of creating the conditions for a ceasefire and ending the war, rather than being left solely to the reconstruction and economic recovery phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also warned that preserving Sudan\u2019s unity could not remain merely a general slogan, given what she described as the profound tests facing social and political cohesion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any measures that lead to multiple institutions, systems, or public services, isolate parts of the country from one another, or prevent aid from reaching parts of Sudan, she said, should be taken seriously by civilian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned that the disintegration of a shared national consciousness could precede political fragmentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call for a unified Sudanese position towards mediators<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On regional and international mediation efforts, El Sadig backed calls for greater coordination and a unified forum, but said this should be developed to include a common mandate, a clear action plan, timetables, and a Sudanese consultative reference body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut at the same time, we must ask ourselves: how do we help the mediators implement what we agree on?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Sadig believes the problem lies not only in the multiplicity of mediation efforts or differences in their capacity, but in the absence of a unified Sudanese position capable of making effective use of these mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a paradox in Sudanese demands for ownership of the political process,\u201d she said. \u201cThat ownership is not achieved simply by affirming it or talking about it, but by Sudanese people having a shared vision and shared tools for exerting influence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civilian charter targeted for 21 October<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Sadig proposed moving beyond issuing another declaration or forming another bloc and instead turning the areas of agreement into a Sudanese civilian action project that can be implemented, measured, and held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said building civilian capacity independent of the parties to the war required three interconnected elements: a shared political vision, clear mechanisms for coordination and decision-making, and practical tools for influence, monitoring, and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also proposed building five interconnected circles of trust: trust among civilians themselves, between civilian and military forces, between the people and civilian forces, between the people and the military, and among Sudan\u2019s different communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She called for agreement on a short national civilian charter setting out principles and commitments, alongside a joint implementation plan addressing fundamental questions such as: \u201cWhat are civilian forces committed to? What are they asking of the parties to the war, mediators, and international partners? What are they offering the Sudanese people? Who is responsible for implementation? And how will monitoring, verification, and accountability be carried out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She proposed 21 October as a target date for announcing the charter, if consultations on it are sufficiently advanced, so that it could mark the beginning of a clear action plan with defined responsibilities, deadlines, monitoring mechanisms, and guarantees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From positions to making peace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summing up her vision, El Sadig said the value of the joint position paper would lie in the doors it could open, rather than those it might close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the current moment offered Sudan\u2019s civilian forces an opportunity to move from defending positions and issuing statements and documents towards reclaiming the political initiative; from alignment to consensus; and from declaring a desire for peace to building the capacity to make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question was no longer simply \u201cWhat do we want?\u201d, she said, but the more pressing questions: \u201cHow do we achieve what we want? Who does what? When? And with what tools and guarantees?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answering these questions, she stressed, represented the real transition from words to action, from alignment to consensus, and from declaring positions to making peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peace process we want<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudanese civilian and political forces opposed to the war and not aligned with either side have formally rejected an invitation by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sovereignty Council and army commander, to hold a dialogue inside Sudan. They described the invitation as non-neutral, a de facto division of Sudan, and a political manoeuvre aimed not at ending the war, but at entrenching military rule, granting it political legitimacy, and paving the way for former regime and Islamist figures to return to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forces reiterated their rejection, at the end of a two-day meeting in Addis Ababa on Sunday, of any dialogue conducted under the control of one side of the war. The groups taking part in the meeting \u2013 including the Sudanese Declaration of Principles forces, the Popular Congress Party, the Umma Party, civil society organisations, and women\u2019s and youth networks \u2013 said Sudan needed a genuine peace process, not a misleading dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting concluded with a joint position paper entitled The Peace Process We Want<\/em>, setting out the vision of Sudan\u2019s democratic civilian forces opposed to the war for ending the fighting and establishing an independent political process, free from the domination of the two warring parties and attempts to reproduce military rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Editor\u2019s note: This article has been translated from Arabic<\/a> with the assistance of artificial intelligence, and subsequently reviewed and adapted by a human editor before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n