AFRICA/SUDAN – First arrest of an Islamist leader following US pressure

Khartoum – The Sudanese government arrested Enagi Abdullah, a prominent Islamist leader and commander of a paramilitary group fighting alongside the army, on Sunday, March 15. During a Ramadan event on March 3, Abdullah declared his group’s explicit support for Iran in its war with Israel and the United States, while also reaffirming his support for the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Abdullah’s arrest came after the US designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization.” The US accuses the Muslim movement of receiving support from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps . Following these statements, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander-in-chief of the Sudanese armed forces, distanced himself from the group.
Burhan declared that the army would not allow any political group to speak on its behalf and ordered legal action against anyone attempting to represent the army’s official position. Groups and movements with links to the Muslim Brotherhood continue to exert influence over Sudanese institutions controlled by General Burhan, particularly the security and intelligence services and the judiciary. The government in Khartoum is likely to face difficulties implementing measures imposed by the United States—such as freezing the Brotherhood’s bank accounts and restricting the freedom of movement of its leaders—because the movement has been ideologically deeply entrenched in the officer corps since the 1970s. The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood has maintained a fluctuating stance regarding relations with Iran. Until the early 2010s, Sudan was a key Iranian ally in East Africa. With the strengthening of the regime’s military wing in Khartoum, however, relations broke down, facilitated by “petrodollars” from the Arab Gulf monarchies. The regime’s Islamist wing, however, maintained contact with Tehran, even during the war in Syria, where Iranian forces supported the Assad regime against the uprising, which also included a strong local Muslim Brotherhood.

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