Sudan has launched a workshop to push for the reorganisation of irregular forces into a unified national military, as part of the political process agreed in a key deal last year for the country’s transition to civilian rule.
Launched on Sunday at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum with the attendance of Sudanese military stakeholders as well as representatives of the United Nations and the African Union, the workshop is the last one established under the requirement of the political framework agreement.
In December 2022, Sudanese civilian and the military leaders reached the agreement to end the country’s political impasse and institute a two-year transitional civilian authority, Xinhua news agency reported.
The workshop discussed completing security arrangements for the armed movements, former rebel groups that were granted legal status in 2020 under the Juba Agreement for Peace in Sudan, integrating fighters of the armed movements and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces into the Sudanese Armed Forces, and forming implementation mechanisms.
“The security and military reform is a long and complex process that cannot be overcome easily, and it is a purely Sudanese process whose foundations were laid by the Sudanese,” Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and Commander of the Sudanese army Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said while addressing the workshop.
He added that the Sudanese armed forces will be under the command of any civilian government elected by the people.
“Reaching a unified army is our goal, and we are proceeding on that with conviction and according to the agreed technical matters,” said Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander of the Rapid Support Forces Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who also attended the event.
Members from Sudanese regular forces, armed movements, political fractions, veterans, as well as representatives of the UN tripartite mechanism and the African Union, are among the workshop’s participants.
