Resurgence of Muslim Brotherhood figures in Sudan

Three decades of military rule in Sudan backed by the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood have damaged the state to the point of making central government almost irrelevant. One of the main pillars of the state, the national army, became infested with elements of either the Muslim Brotherhood or those sympathetic to them during this period

The weakening of the state was compounded by ousted former Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir’s legalisation of the Janjaweed militia that his Muslim Brotherhood government used to destroy the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The current conflict in Sudan could pave the way for a resurgence of figures from the deposed Omar Al-Bashir regime. Its primary support base was the Muslim Brotherhood, which many Sudanese believe is the third main player in the current conflict.

While RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dalago (Hemedti) has repeatedly claimed that Muslim Brotherhood figures had links with the SAF, it is important to bear in mind that Hemedti was himself associated with the Brotherhood. 

Both groups, the Brotherhood and RSF, are by nature anti-state and have a cult-like or militia mentality. Both see national armies as their antagonists. The regular army is built on discipline and a national doctrine of protecting the state and defending its borders. 

The Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, from which many terrorist offshoots have emerged like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group or IS, has a rigid organisational structure built on the notion of tae’a (obedience), and the RSF is in essence tribal in its structure.

It was, after all, the Al-Bashir regime that brought Hemedti from Darfour to Khartoum and supported the creation of his paramilitary outfit. Tit-for-tat charges of old regime and Muslim Brotherhood connections hold little water in the current facedown between the commanders of the RSF and SAF.

Like its counterpart in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan has splintered. It has split into eight organisations. 

The two most important are the group headed by Seif Al-Din Arbab, which still maintains a presence in Egypt’s southern neighbour, and the group led by Adel Ala Allah which is currently based abroad.  Both are closely connected with the mother organisation in Egypt, although the latter is also related to the London-based international Muslim Brotherhood.

Observers believe that the current conflict is bringing the two together, under a nascent umbrella framework the Broad Islamic Current. Its chances of returning to the fore in the Sudanese political scene are weak, and its agenda is currently focused on the home front.