Exclusive - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan: Dedicated General Facing Political Test in Sudan

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
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Exclusive - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan: Dedicated General Facing Political Test in Sudan

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)

When the security forces of ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir attempted to use force to disperse protesters outside the Defense Ministry in Khartoum, the name of Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was being floated around as the people’s hope in the military. Soon after, Bashir was removed from office by the army and Burhan was later named head of a transitional military council.

Burhan succeeded Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, Bashir’s deputy, whose appointment as head the council was widely opposed by the protesters.

Burhan was born in 1960 in a small village near the northern city of Shendi. He joined the Sudanese military academy in the early 1980s. He was raised in a family that adheres to the Sufi religious teachings of Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim. Burhan is married and has five children.

He excelled at military school and rose up the ranks. After his graduation, he was deployed at several hot spots in Sudan that was witnessing a peak in hostilities in various conflicts. He was first deployed as a border guard and later joined battlefronts in the Upper Nile and Equatoria regions in what is now South Sudan. He then became commander of western ground forces in Zalingei city in Central Darfur. For years, he worked as a military attache in China, which enjoys special ties with Sudan.

Burhan enrolled in military training courses in several countries, including Syria and Jordan. He was the head of Sudan’s ground forces and then inspector general of the armed forces until Bashir’s ouster. He also oversaw Sudanese troops serving in the Saudi-led Arab coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen. This experience brought him closer to General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known by his nickname Hemedti, who commands the Rapid Support Forces. Hemedti would later be appointed as Burhan’s deputy in the transitional military council.

Former chief of staff Uthman Bilia said that Burhan was one of the “most competent officers” in the military. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that no better figure could lead Sudan during its period of transition. He explained that Burhan was able to shift the military’s loyalties to the protesters, making him the most capable official to complete the transition to civilian rule.

Military sources revealed that in the tense moments in the aftermath of Bashir’s overthrow, Burhan carried out a series of contacts with military commanders. He was the one to inform Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf and his deputy, Kamal Abdulmaarouf, that their appointment to the military council was rejected by the people due to their close ties to Bashir and active role in using force to break up protests.

Burhan’s “timely intervention and charisma allowed him to regroup military ranks and unite them in supporting the revolution,” the sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Retired officer Ahmed Babiker al-Tijani told Asharq Al-Awsat that Burhan was at the top of his class in the military academy and he has the respect of his fellow officers. He added that he is not affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood and rose up the ranks in the military due to his high professionalism.

Burhan was welcomed by the protesters after he replaced Ibn Auf as head of the transitional military council. He soon found himself at an impasse with the people after negotiations between them and the military failed to so far reach an agreement on the formation of a joint civilian-military body to oversee the period following Bashir’s overthrow.

One of Burhan’s relatives described him as “moderate” and a "good listener" with a few words. He was not known to have played a direct role in politics, despite being part of the military that has long had a role of being embroiled in Sudan’s governance.

“He does not have political leanings. He is only passionate about the military,” he added.



To Get Their Own Cash, People in Gaza Must Pay Middlemen a 40% Cut

A destroyed branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City is seen Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
A destroyed branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City is seen Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
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To Get Their Own Cash, People in Gaza Must Pay Middlemen a 40% Cut

A destroyed branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City is seen Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
A destroyed branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City is seen Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)

Cash is the lifeblood of the Gaza Strip’s shattered economy, and like all other necessities in this war-torn territory — food, fuel, medicine — it is in extremely short supply.

With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people have become reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses and commissions on those transactions have soared to about 40%.

"The people are crying blood because of this," said Ayman al-Dahdouh, a school director living in Gaza City. "It’s suffocating us, starving us."

At a time of surging inflation, high unemployment and dwindling savings, the scarcity of cash has magnified the financial squeeze on families — some of whom have begun to sell their possessions to buy essential goods.

The cash that is available has even lost some of its luster. Palestinians use the Israeli currency, the shekel, for most transactions. Yet with Israel no longer resupplying the territory with newly printed bank notes, merchants are increasingly reluctant to accept frayed bills.

Gaza’s punishing cash crunch has several root causes, experts say.

To curtail Hamas’ ability to purchase weapons and pay its fighters, Israel stopped allowing cash to enter Gaza at the start of the war. Around the same time, many wealthy families in Gaza withdrew their money from banks and then fled the territory. And rising fears about Gaza’s financial system prompted foreign businesses selling goods into the territory to demand cash payments.

As Gaza’s money supply dwindled and civilians’ desperation mounted, cash brokers' commissions — around 5% at the start of the war — skyrocketed.

Someone needing cash transfers money electronically to a broker and moments later is handed a fraction of that amount in bills. Many brokers openly advertise their services, while others are more secretive. Some grocers and retailers have also begun exchanging cash for their customers.

"If I need $60, I need to transfer $100," said Mohammed Basheer al-Farra, who lives in southern Gaza after being displaced from Khan Younis. "This is the only way we can buy essentials, like flour and sugar. We lose nearly half of our money just to be able to spend it."

In 2024, inflation in Gaza surged by 230%, according to the World Bank. It dropped slightly during the ceasefire that began in January, only to shoot up again after Israel backed out of the truce in March.

Cash touches every aspect of life in Gaza

About 80% of people in Gaza were unemployed at the end of 2024, according to the World Bank, and the figure is likely higher now. Those with jobs are mostly paid by direct deposits into their bank accounts.

But "when you want to buy vegetables, food, water, medication -- if you want to take transportation, or you need a blanket, or anything — you must use cash," al-Dahdouh said.

Shahid Ajjour’s family has been living off of savings for two years after the pharmacy and another business they owned were ruined by the war.

"We had to sell everything just to get cash," said Ajjour, who sold her gold to buy flour and canned beans. The family of eight spends the equivalent of $12 every two days on flour; before the war, that cost less than $4.

Sugar is very expensive, costing the equivalent of $80-$100 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), multiple people said; before the war, that cost less than $2.

Gasoline is about $25 a liter, or roughly $95 a gallon, when paying the lower, cash price.

Bills are worn and unusable

The bills in Gaza are tattered after 21 months of war.

Money is so fragile, it feels as if it is going to melt in your hands, said Mohammed al-Awini, who lives in a tent camp in southern Gaza.

Small business owners said they were under pressure to ask customers for undamaged cash because their suppliers demand pristine bills from them.

Thaeir Suhwayl, a flour merchant in Deir al-Balah, said his suppliers recently demanded he pay them only with brand new 200-shekel ($60) bank notes, which he said are rare. Most civilians pay him with 20-shekel ($6) notes that are often in poor condition.

On a recent visit to the market, Ajjour transferred the shekel equivalent of around $100 to a cash broker and received around $50 in return. But when she tried to buy some household supplies from a merchant, she was turned away because the bills weren’t in good condition.

"So the worth of your $50 is zero in the end," she said.

This problem has given rise to a new business in Gaza: money repair. It costs between 3 and 10 shekels ($1-$3) to mend old bank notes. But even cash repaired with tape or other means is sometimes rejected.

People are at the mercy of cash brokers

After most of the banks closed in the early days of the war, those with large reserves of cash suddenly had immense power.

"People are at their mercy," said Mahmoud Aqel, who has been displaced from his home in southern Gaza. "No one can stop them."

The war makes it impossible to regulate market prices and exchange rates, said Dalia Alazzeh, an expert in finance and accounting at the University of the West of Scotland. "Nobody can physically monitor what’s happening," Alazzeh said.

A year ago, the Palestine Monetary Authority, the equivalent of a central bank for Gaza and the West Bank, sought to ease the crisis by introducing a digital payment system known as Iburaq. It attracted half a million users, or a quarter of the population, according to the World Bank, but was ultimately undermined by merchants insisting on cash.

Israel sought to ramp up financial pressure on Hamas earlier this year by tightening the distribution of humanitarian aid, which it said was routinely siphoned off by militants and then resold.

Experts said it is unclear if the cash brokers’ activities benefit Hamas, as some Israeli analysts claim.

The war has made it more difficult to determine who is behind all sorts of economic activity in the territory, said Omar Shabaan, director of Palthink for Strategic Studies, a Gaza-based think tank.

"It's a dark place now. You don't know who is bringing cigarettes into Gaza," he said, giving just one example. "It's like a mafia."

These same deep-pocketed traders are likely the ones running cash brokerages, and selling basic foodstuffs, he said. "They benefit by imposing these commissions," he said.

Once families run out of cash, they are forced to turn to humanitarian aid.

Al-Farra said that is what prompted him to begin seeking food at an aid distribution center, where it is common for Palestinians to jostle over one other for sacks of flour and boxes of pasta.

"This is the only way I can feed my family," he said.