Sudanese Opposition Pushes for Constitutional Declaration that Removes Army's Control

Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) during their meeting with the head of UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes (Twitter Account of Perthes)
Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) during their meeting with the head of UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes (Twitter Account of Perthes)
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Sudanese Opposition Pushes for Constitutional Declaration that Removes Army's Control

Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) during their meeting with the head of UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes (Twitter Account of Perthes)
Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) during their meeting with the head of UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes (Twitter Account of Perthes)

Sudan's opposition Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) stressed the need to exclude the army from any future political arrangements, saying military leaders used the remnants of the former regime against the United Nations initiative to solve the crisis in the country.

The Forces handed its vision to resolve the crisis to the head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes.

Perthes met with the FCC as part of UN-facilitated consultations for a political process for Sudan, which will continue engaging Sudanese stakeholders in the next few days.

The vision is based on ending the military coup, restoring the democratic transition, and defining a clear role for the traditional agencies during the transitional period.

The leader of the Forces, Khaled Omar Youssef, said: "We met with the UN Special Envoy for Sudan, based on his invitation to consult on the political process in the country."

He added that the Forces announced that they will deal positively with the initiative provided that it ends the coup and restores the path of civil and democratic transition in the country.

Youssef pointed out that the insurgents welcomed the initiative, but they aligned with the remnants of the ousted regime and continued to kill the peaceful protesters.

The leader explained that the meeting with the UN mission discussed some of the issues related to a constitutional establishment based on a fully civilian state that will lead the transitional phase.

He pointed out that the coalition's vision is to establish a new constitutional declaration that stipulates an entirely civilian transitional authority.

The new constitutional declaration should explicitly redefine the relationship between the civilian component and the military institution to avoid repeating the previous partnership, said Youssef.

The official believes it is crucial to establish healthy relations between civilians and the army based on the military establishment's disassociation from politics, adding that the army must perform its tasks in a democratic society.

The Forces suggested that the transition period should not exceed two years, ending with free and fair elections.

The Forces also stressed the need to include a roadmap for reforming the security and military agencies in the constitutional declaration, with a unified national army.

The Forces also wanted the revolutionary forces to agree on a prime minister and a cabinet to lead the transitional period, providing that consultations on the formation of the transitional state institutions would begin immediately after the military coup was overthrown.

The declaration wants to ensure justice is established in all the crimes committed in the country and all officials are held accountable for their involvement in the dispersal of the sit-in of the General Command and violence against the protests.

The spokesman of the FCC Central Council, Jaafar Hassan, said the Forces agreed on a clear vision to end the current situation and establish the next transitional phase.

The opposition alliance identified the parties to the political process, including the Forces of Freedom and Change, the Resistance Committees, the armed struggle forces that signed and did not sign the Juba Agreement.

The Forces proposed establishing a high-level mechanism in which international and regional parties would be represented by influential figures from the Troika countries, the European Union, and African and Arab countries.



Israeli Military Says Detained Suspected ISIS Militant in Syria

FILE PHOTO: Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre along the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, November 24, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre along the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, November 24, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
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Israeli Military Says Detained Suspected ISIS Militant in Syria

FILE PHOTO: Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre along the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, November 24, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre along the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, November 24, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo

The Israeli military said on Saturday its forces had arrested a suspected ISIS militant in Syria earlier this week and taken him back to Israel.

In a statement, the military said that on Wednesday "soldiers completed an operation in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS.”

"The suspect was transferred for further processing in Israeli territory," the statement said.


Report: Colombian Mercenaries in Sudan ‘Recruited by UK-registered Firms’

(COMBO) This combination of satellite images released by Planet Labs PBC on December 19, 2025, shows from top left to bottom right:- the graves near the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) headquarters in El-Fasher, taken on the following dates: on October 8, 2025, on October 27, 2025, on January 15, 2025, and on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of satellite images released by Planet Labs PBC on December 19, 2025, shows from top left to bottom right:- the graves near the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) headquarters in El-Fasher, taken on the following dates: on October 8, 2025, on October 27, 2025, on January 15, 2025, and on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs / AFP)
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Report: Colombian Mercenaries in Sudan ‘Recruited by UK-registered Firms’

(COMBO) This combination of satellite images released by Planet Labs PBC on December 19, 2025, shows from top left to bottom right:- the graves near the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) headquarters in El-Fasher, taken on the following dates: on October 8, 2025, on October 27, 2025, on January 15, 2025, and on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of satellite images released by Planet Labs PBC on December 19, 2025, shows from top left to bottom right:- the graves near the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) headquarters in El-Fasher, taken on the following dates: on October 8, 2025, on October 27, 2025, on January 15, 2025, and on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Planet Labs / AFP)

An exclusive investigation by UK’s The Guardian has found companies hiring hundreds of Colombian fighters for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces.

A one-bedroom flat off north London’s Creighton Road in Tottenham is, according to UK government records, tied to a transnational network of companies involved in the mass recruitment of mercenaries to fight in Sudan alongside the RSF, said the report.

Colombian mercenaries were directly involved in the RSF’s seizure of the southwestern Sudanese city of El Fasher in late October, which prompted a killing frenzy that analysts say has cost at least 60,000 lives.

“The flat in Tottenham is registered to a company called Zeuz Global, set up by two individuals named and sanctioned last week by the US treasury for hiring Colombian mercenaries to fight for the RSF,” said The Guardian.

“Both figures – Colombian nationals in their 50s – are described in documents at Companies House, the government register of firms operating in the UK, as living in Britain,” it said.

“The day after the US treasury announced sanctions on those behind the Colombian mercenary operation –December 9 – Zeuz Global abruptly moved its operation to the very heart of London. On 10 December the firm shared “new address details” Its new postcode matches One Aldwych, a five-star hotel in Covent Garden,” the report added.

Yet the first line of Zeuz Global’s new address is, confusingly, “4dd Aldwych,” which corresponds to the Waldorf Hilton hotel 100 meters away, according to The Guardian.

Both hotels said they had no link to Zeuz Global and had no idea why the firm had used their postcodes.

“It is of major concern that the key individuals the US government claims are directing this mercenary supply have been able to set up a UK company operating from a flat in north London, and even to claim that they’re resident in the UK,” said Mike Lewis, a researcher and former member of the UN panel of experts on Sudan.

When Companies House was asked if it had any knowledge of what Zeuz Global actually did, or is doing, it did not respond. The government agency would also not confirm whether the sanctioned individuals were, in fact, resident in the UK.

Contacting Zeuz proved fruitless; its website, set up in May, was labelled as “under construction” with no contact details provided.


Egyptian President Urges UN Security Council Reforms for Africa's Larger Role

In this photo, provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, front right, greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)
In this photo, provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, front right, greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)
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Egyptian President Urges UN Security Council Reforms for Africa's Larger Role

In this photo, provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, front right, greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)
In this photo, provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, front right, greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on Saturday reiterated calls for structural changes in the UN Security Council to grant Africa a larger role in shaping global decisions.

El-Sisi made the plea for a “more pluralistic” world order at a conference of the Russia-Africa partnership held in Cairo, which was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and ministers from more than 50 African countries along with representatives from several African and regional organizations.

“The voice of Africa should be present and influential in making global decisions given the continent’s human, economic, political and demographic weight,” el-Sisi said in a statement read out by his foreign minister at the plenary session of the conference.

According to The Associated Press, he added that international financial institutions need to undergo similar reforms to ensure Africa an equitable representation.

Since 2005, the African Union has been demanding that Africa be granted two permanent seats with veto powers in the Security Council, arguing that such reforms would contribute to achieving peace and stability on the continent, which has been struggling with wars for decades.

The Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has not changed from its 1945 configuration: 10 non-permanent members from all regions of the world elected for two-year terms without veto power, and five countries that were dominant powers at the end of World War II are permanent members with veto power: The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

In his statement, el-Sisi said that the Russia-Africa ministerial conference will develop a plan to consolidate the partnership ahead of next year’s summit of heads of state.

“We remain a reliable partner for African states in strengthening their national sovereignty, both politically and in matters of security, as well as in other dimensions,” Lavrov said at the plenary session. “We’re committed to further unlocking the existing enormous potential of our practical cooperation.”