After being elected as the new president of the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Suleiman Sandal made his first statement.
He apologized to the Sudanese people for the October 25th coup led by the armed forces at that time.
He posted on his account on the X platform (previously Twitter) that this decision “obstructed the transitional period and brought back the dissolved National Congress Party regime” to power.
However, many Sudanese criticized that tweet, and some considered it, in comments on X, as merely an attempt to gain the people’s favour.
This comes after the JEM ousted its president, Gibril Ibrahim, who was also the Minister of Finance in the federal government, as his term ended. They chose Suleiman Sandal as the political secretary of their leadership during a period in which Sudan was facing an unprecedented security and political crisis.
While the fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF continued in Sudan, the movement announced the end of Ibrahim’s presidency during an extraordinary conference held in Addis Ababa. Prominent leaders within the movement accused Ibrahim of obstructing attempts to elect a new leader since the end of his term three years ago.
Informed sources attributed Gibril’s dismissal decision to his alleged meeting with the brother of the commander of the RSF in N’Djamena. However, Sandal denied this accusation and stated today that he regrets supporting “the coup,” referring to the extraordinary measures taken by the RSF and the army alike in October 2021, which resulted in the dissolution of the government led by Abdalla Hamdok.
نعتذر للشعب السوداني عن إنقلاب ٢٥ أكتوبر، الذي أعاق الفترة الإنتقالية، وأعاد نظام المؤتمر الوطني المحلول.
— سليمان صندل حقار (@SuleimanSandal) August 31, 2023