Dismantling Al Bashir’s Regime

On 10 December 2019, which marked International Human Rights Day, General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, Chairman of the Sovereign Council, signed a law for ‘Dismantling Al Bashir’s Regime’ – a law that aims to break the grip of former Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir’s National Congress Party’s (NCP) on the political scene, state resources and institutions.

The head of the dismantling committee, Lieutenant General Yasser Al Atta, one of the five military members of Sudan’s transitional council, stated in a press statement that the committee’s goal was to eliminate the systematic empowerment of the defunct regime. Al Atta stressed that the committee works in transparency and in accordance with a clear law away from retaliation and redress, and in coordination with all relevant institutions, headed by the Ministry of Justice.

In conjunction with this, a member of the transitional Sovereign Council, Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Muhammad Al Faki Suleiman, affirmed that the committee will continue its work during the upcoming lockdown period to issue a number of important decisions and recover major institutions that were acquired under false slogans from the Sudanese people. According to him, that the committee represents the shield of the revolution and will not betray its martyrs.

‘The law passed to dismantle NCP and disempower it, did not result from a quest for vengeance but rather to preserve and restore the dignity of our people who have grown weary of the injustice under the hands of NCP who have looted and hindered the development of this great nation,’ said Sulieman.

A day before the one-year anniversary of Al Bashir’s removal on 11 April 2019, the dismantling committee responsible for dismantling the party-state, fighting corruption and repatriating looted resources, held a news conference to announce their decision on dissolving the Islamic Dawa Organization (IDO); abolishing its law, dissolving its affiliated institutions and seizing its assets and investments in Sudan and outside Sudan.

The IDO was one of the social arms of the former party and its headquarters were used to record the first statement made by Al Bashir after the 1989 coup that brought him and the NCP to power.

In addition, 99 lands wrongfully owned by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Karti, was recovered and registered in the name of the Ministry of Finance.

On 17 April 2020, another press conference was held of which the committee announced: 

• Canceling the registration of Anamel for Women and Children Care, which belonged to the IDO.

The organisation had received funds from charitable organisations to build a hospital in southern Khartoum. The funds had gone elsewhere, leaving the hospital’s construction incomplete.

• Recovering the assets of the River Transport Authority.

The authority, which was under the supervision of the Alzubeir Ahmed Hassan, the Secretary General of the Islamic Movement during Al Bashir’s defunct regime, is known to have destroyed most of Sudan’s basic facilities including Sudan’s railway, Sudan Airways, Al Naql Al Nahry (one of the cheapest means of transportation in the world; that connected South Sudan to North Sudan). All assets were destroyed and sold off under the false notion that they were “obsolete, ineffective”. The authority’s assets were recovered by the committee and were estimated to be worth over 450 million dollars.

• Recovering 390 plots of land measuring 249,000 metres from:

1. The property of the Ma’arij Organization for Peace and Development. This organisation that belongs to the family of Al Bashir, was found to unlawfully owning almost 14 plots of land covering 37,000 metres.
2. 131 plots of land (48,000 metres) from the former Director of the police, Muhammad Najib Al Tayyib Muhammad Uthman, 173 plots of land (83,000 metres) and one land (53,000 metres) registered in the name of his wife, Hind Mustafa Abdullah. 
3. 71 plots of land (28,000 metres) registered under the name of Atta Al Mannan Al Haj Bakhit, the Secretary General of the Islamic Da’awa Organization.

• Recovering 73% of the shares of Al-Rai Al-Am, noting that these shares were transferred to Khalid Ghazi Salah-Eddin Al-Atabani, Mohamad Ghazi Salah-Eddin Al Atabani and Abdul-Ghani by illegitimate means from the National Congress Party after success of the victorious December Revolution.

On 23 April 2020, a third press conference was held at which the committee announced: 

• Reclaiming residential and agricultural lands from Abdel Baset Hamza estimated at an area of ​​one million acres, along with his 30 million shares from MTN Communications, and shares in Afra Mall, Al Salam Rotana Hotel, Friendship Palace hotel and Tareeq Dongola Arqen company. The total confiscated and recovered funds from Abdel Basset Hamza amounted to USD1 billion and USD200 million; half the estimated property controlled by Hamza (more than USD2 billion).

Salah Manna, a member of the dismantling committee, said Abdel Basset Hamza, once a junior officer in the regular forces, had very quickly penetrated the telecommunications sector becoming a businessman overnight. He was involved in the sale of the Sudanese Mobitel Company for an amount equal to only 10% of its real value. Mobitel was bringing income for the Sudanese people, and its sale was the primary reason for the fall of the Sudanese pound and inflation. Hamza was also involved in the transfer of a branch of the Sudanese Telecom Company (Sudatel) abroad, investing the money from sales in favour of his personal gain and wealth as well as Al Bashir’s and others. 

It has become clear to the Sudanese people that the NCP promoted a culture of corruption within its ranks and at every level of the bureaucracy and state institutions, plundering the funds of the Sudanese people.

The recovery of property of organisations, shares of companies and bodies, lands and real estate owned by the number of leaders and followers of the defunct regime have all returned to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning of Sudan.

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Rahba El Amin is a medical student at the University of Khartoum, trying to do her little bits of good everywhere she goes. She is a blogger, book-worm, aspiring writer, photographer and human rights activist — who can’t live without shai bei laban.