Rhino: Agencies – Leaked Western reports have revealed an actual plan to remove members of the Muslim Brotherhood from the Sudanese army, as part of direct coordination between the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Egyptian leadership.
According to informed sources, the recent decisions, which included the formation of a new chief of staff, promotions, and retirements for a number of senior officers, came under direct pressure and dictates from Cairo, which stressed the need to subject all combat support formations to the law of the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The sources explained that the Egyptian move came after the intervention of former US President Donald Trump’s administration in the Sudanese crisis and its call on the parties concerned to take “serious” steps to end the war that has been going on for more than two years. They added that the failure of the “quartet” meeting prompted Washington to propose a new roadmap aimed at dismantling the external complications affecting the Sudanese issue.
Cairo’s support for General Burhan, who for years was considered the strongest ally of the Islamists, faces serious challenges.
Under pressure, Cairo urged Burhan to adopt an integrated political and military plan to get rid of his Islamist allies, amid close coordination between Egyptian intelligence and Sudanese security agencies to implement these steps.
In this context, the Italian Institute for International Political Studies noted that Egypt, despite its economic crises, still wields considerable influence in Sudan.
The Washington Institute also pointed to “Cairo’s dilemma” in dealing with the Sudanese war, considering that Sudan’s stability remains vital to its strategic interests, but is conditional on getting rid of “ideological baggage” within the army.
For her part, Amani al-Tawil, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, believes that Cairo is dealing with “the facts on the ground” and denies supporting Islamists in Sudan, considering what is being circulated in this regard to be “mere political propaganda.”
As for the internal situation in Sudan, while Burhan’s recent decisions appear to be part of routine procedures followed in the military establishment, their timing, scale, and the combat weight of the officers who were referred to retirement raise questions about whether they are merely administrative changes or a calculated move to rebalance power within the army and remove figures who could cause disputes or take political positions that threaten the unity of the military establishment.
