Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has appointed a former senior aide to ousted president Omar al-Bashir as an adviser to the Sovereignty Council, bringing a prominent figure from the former administration back into a senior government position.
Musa Mohamed Ahmed, who served for years as an assistant to Bashir, was appointed with the rank of federal minister and assigned responsibility for the Eastern Sudan Reconstruction and Development Fund, according to a decree reported on Wednesday.
The appointment comes as Burhan makes changes to the SAF government’s leadership in eastern Sudan, where disputes over political representation, development resources and administrative control have intensified.
Former Bashir ally returns
Ahmed is a prominent political figure from eastern Sudan and a former leader of the Beja Congress.
He previously headed the Eastern Front, an alliance formed in 2005 between the Beja Congress and the Free Lions movement that fought against the central government over the political and economic marginalisation of eastern Sudan.
In October 2006, Ahmed signed the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement with Bashir’s government in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
The agreement provided for power-sharing, security arrangements and the establishment of a development fund intended to address decades of underinvestment in the region.
Following the deal, Ahmed was appointed assistant to Bashir and remained in the position for several years.
He also previously supervised the Eastern Sudan Reconstruction and Development Fund, which was established to finance infrastructure and essential services across Red Sea, Kassala and Gedaref states.
His latest appointment restores him to a position of influence over the same development programme.
Leadership changes in eastern Sudan
The appointment coincides with another decision by Burhan to remove Kassala Governor Al-Sadiq al-Azraq, a retired major general, and replace him with Rashad Abdel Hamid, the military’s inspector general.
Sudan Tribune reported that the leadership changes followed tensions involving influential Beja leader Mohamed al-Amin Turk, who had publicly opposed the former Kassala governor.
Turk has demanded administrative changes in the state, including proposals to redraw its boundaries.
However, the SAF government has not publicly established a connection between those demands and the latest appointments.
Ahmed maintains longstanding political and tribal relationships in eastern Sudan, including with Turk.
The decisions return attention to Burhan’s reliance on established political figures as the military leadership seeks to manage regional rivalries during Sudan’s ongoing war.
They also raise questions about the influence of officials who served under Bashir, whose three-decade rule ended following mass demonstrations in April 2019.
No detailed programme or funding allocation for the reconstruction fund accompanied the announcement.
