Leading member of the Sudanese Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces (Taqaddum) and head of the Unionist Alliance Babiker Faisal Babiker urged the Sudanese warring parties to end the conflict and resolve disputes through negotiations “to save the country from the fate of others where wars have lasted decades.”
In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat from Addis Ababa, he said: “I call on both parties to show determination to stop the war as soon as possible before it spirals out of their control.”
He called on the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to reach a “peaceful negotiated solution that safeguards our country and places it back on the path of the revolution and democratic civil transition.”
He recalled that before the eruption of the conflict last year and as a member of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) liaison committee, he met with army commander Abdul Fattah al-Burhan for three hours on a Friday during which they agreed to ease the tensions in the country.
They also agreed to form a committee comprised of army, RSF and FFC members. The committee was set to meet the next day, Saturday, and withdraw army forces from Khartoum, Babiker went on to say.
After meeting with Burhan, the liaison committee then headed to meet with RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo at his home but couldn’t find him. It was instead met with his brother and deputy leader of the RSF Abdulrahman, who expressed his support for the agreement reached by the meeting hours earlier.
He pledged to take part in the meeting that was set for Saturday.
Babiker told Asharq Al-Awsat that he returned home after these meetings reassured that they had succeeded in defusing the tensions.
However, they were taken by surprise the next morning when an “armed group” surrounded the sports city - an RSF camp. The war erupted soon after.
Babiker said the group that fired the first shot “had an interest in thwarting the ‘framework agreement’ because it wanted to return to power.”
The agreement details the transition to a civilian democracy in Sudan.
Babiker added that a group “loyal to the Islamist movement and National Congress Party had made several threats about thwarting the transition and it then fired that first shot that sparked the war.”
Asked by Asharq Al-Awsat why the situation spiraled out of control, he replied: “We had to contend with several new factors when the war erupted, such as air strikes that have killed hundreds of people.”
“Every party then amassed its forces. The drive for war was difficult to contain,” he said.
