Mohamed Mukhtar al-Nour, a legal advisor and member of the RSF negotiating delegation, said that the Islamic Movement’s coup on June 30, 1989, was the beginning of a hegemonic project known as the Empowerment Project or the “Apostolic Officers” project.
This project aimed to control all state institutions, including the army, by gradually recruiting elements loyal to the Islamic Movement, until their membership in the group reached more than 90 percent of the military academy graduates.
In an interview with Eram News, Mukhtar said that the project was expanded to include the civil service and other security institutions, not just the military. He also emphasized that admission requirements have been set based on recommendations from the movement’s leaders. He noted that prominent army officers, such as Omar al-Bashir and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, were part of the Islamic Movement’s sleeper cells before they came to light.
The legal advisor noted that the Islamist coup in 1989 was a turning point in Sudan’s history, as the movement began implementing an empowerment project known as the Rasuliyya Officers Project. He explained that this project aimed to employ members of the Islamic Movement and youth in all state institutions, including security, service and civilian institutions.
“The first steps of the project were to recruit the first batches in the army by selecting elements affiliated with the Islamic Movement, where they were gradually introduced to the military institution until the percentage of those affiliated with the movement in the military academy reached about 90 percent of those accepted, and these elements were trained to qualify them to perform their role within the army,” he said.
He pointed out that “control was not limited to the army but extended to the appointment of administrative officers in the civil service, by accepting batches of administrative officers to support the effective control of the Islamic Movement within the army.”
He added: “The Islamic Movement already had elements in the army, including prominent figures such as ousted President Omar al-Bashir, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din Kabashi and Omar Zain al-Abidin, as they were sleeper cells that emerged after they came to power.”
“These elements established associations within the military institution, such as the Holy Quran Society, and established jihadist units within the army, including the Popular Defense Group, which includes elements of the Islamic Movement,” he continued, stressing that Islamists and original mujahideen remained infiltrated within the army.
Al-Nour emphasized that the admission of recruits to the military academy requires the recommendation of the Islamic Movement’s emirs in the region, in addition to the recommendation of an army commander who belongs to the movement, which led to the military institution being under their complete control.
He increased: “Even officers who are not affiliated with the movement who are admitted to the military academy are often selected based on geographical considerations, noting that most of these officers come from northern Sudan, where their percentage reaches about 85% of the officers, most of whom are affiliated with the Islamic Movement.”
Al-Nour concluded his speech by saying that the Islamic Movement did not only control the army, but also turned the military institution into a tool that serves its interests only. This also included other security institutions such as the police and the security apparatus, where the percentage of movement affiliates reached 100%, stressing that this bulldozing of institutions was done at the expense of the Sudanese state and its national interests.
