At Sudan’s embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, an official event billed as supporting the war descended into scandal after a man introduced as “Uncle Hassan Mustafa,” and presented as head of the Sudanese community, threatened on camera to behead Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan with a sword.
The hall erupted in takbirs and laughter, with embassy staff—including Ambassador Khalid Musa Dafallah—visible and audibly amused.
Introducing the speaker, Ambassador Khalid Musa raised his index finger in a gesture critics associate with Islamist hardliners and said the “community leader has a message for the president,” referring to Burhan as “president.”
The “message,” it turned out, was a direct death threat: the speaker said he would cut off Burhan’s head and invited anyone present to carry the statement to him. He added that if Burhan backed away from the war, “we’ll throw him out.”
The footage, still circulating online, has provoked outrage far beyond Sudan’s political divides, with observers calling it a stain on diplomatic norms.
It’s a travesty of diplomatic norms and the Uncle Hassan Mustafa’s boast that he’d “fly to Burhan’s office if he had wings” falls flat—there are regular flights from Kigali to Port Sudan.
Open questions now hang over the Port Sudan military junta’s foreign ministry: Is Khalid Musa Dafallah still serving as ambassador in Rwanda? Has he been recalled or disciplined? Is the man who issued the live, on-air beheading threat facing any consequences? And is Burhan, who styles himself commander-in-chief and head of the Sovereignty Council, still in his office unfazed?
