Communist Party says Darfur region open to secession

Sudanese Communist Party spokesperson Fathi El-Fadl (File photo)

The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) says it cannot rule out Darfur’s secession, pointing out that the division of Sudan was projected by the imperial powers due to their geopolitical interests.

SCP spokesperson Fathi El-Fadl told Radio Tamazuj that curbing those ambitions depends on the resilience and the strength of the Sudanese political forces.

He noted that the international community has been working to weaken the political forces and pushing them towards division, referring to the Berlin and Paris conference of 1880s that partitioned Africa.

El-Fadl said that it was the external interests that led the Sudanese political forces accepting participation in the 2020 elections, at a time when the mass movement was at its strongest, to overthrow the Bashir regime. He emphasized that certain political forces had conspired with the external powers to weaken the popular movement at that time.

The war, El-Fadl said, would not cease through international alliances and foreign conferences, but through a dialogue among the Sudanese, thus the need to exclude the National Congress Party, the Security Committee leaders – the Army, and the Rapid Support Forces from the process. He said soldiers should return to the barracks and the militia groups should dissolve.

In his opinion, there was no animosity towards the Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, a Sudanese umbrella group also known as Taqaddum, confirming that their differences lay in the methods of addressing the national issues. However, he pointed out that a unified front for the civil forces would not materialize under the current top-down approach.

El-Fadl noted that the disagreements intensified with the intervention of the international community.

He believes that cooperating with the masses, uniting them, boosting their morale, regaining their confidence and providing services to them, would expedite the cessation of war.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since 15 April 2023.

The hostilities, which began over plans to fold the RSF into the military, killed thousands of people, with 10,000-15,000 killed in el-Geneina alone, according to UN experts.

The RSF has seized all areas of the western region of Darfur except for El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, which is controlled by the Sudanese army and its allies but currently besieged.