The Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, a Sudanese umbrella group also known as Taqaddum, has denied claims of any dispute between the National Umma Party and the SPLM-North faction over the separation of religion and the state.
Tagaddum is a coalition of civil society, political parties, youth, vocational and feminist groups working towards bolstering democracy and human rights in Sudan. The body is led by former prime minister Dr. Abdalla Hamdok.
The coalition has been active in recent months to help end the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It has recently concluded a founding conference in Addis Ababa to establish its leadership structures.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj from Addis Ababa, Madani Abbas Madani, a leading member of Taqaddum, said the SPLM-North, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hilu, participated in the meeting as an observer and was not part of the discussions, in which the issue of separating religion from the state was discussed extensively.
Madani, who formerly served as trade minister in the transitional government, asserted that Taqaddum’s political vision conflicts with the ambitions of the warring parties, which were seeking to monopolize power. He emphasized that they were working to remove the military from politics and the economy, which contradicts the ambitions of both sides to the conflict.
Madani said he believes that the warring parties have created a crisis and hate based on religious and ethnic blackmail, pointing out that the rhetoric was driving the country towards fragmentation.
“Strengthening civil forces and coordinating their unity plays a significant role in isolating the political legitimacy of the war in Sudan,” Madani said, adding that the Taqaddum founding conference presented a comprehensive political vision.
“Both warring parties have committed war crimes and violations for which they must be held accountable,” asserted Madani, who further noted that the Addis Ababa conference emphasized the necessity of ensuring accountability and preventing impunity.
On the proposals to stop the war, Madani said: “There have been numerous attempts to integrate these platforms. Taqaddum has expressed a positive view regarding the Jeddah platform, as it involves influential countries such as the United States and Saudi Arabia.”
He proposed the expansion of the platform to include the African Union and IGAD and several neighboring countries.
Taqaddum, he said, was aligned with the revolution and aims to create a new reality with broad popular support, leading to the establishment of a civilian government. However, he acknowledged that the outfit does not claim to represent all revolutionary forces striving for democratic civilian transformation.
Madani explained: “Taqaddum will not close the door on the revolutionary forces that achieved the December Revolution. Those other revolutionary forces may have a critical view of Taqaddam’s project.”