Sudanese political leaders and civil-society figures are urging their government and the international community to designate the country’s Islamist movement — the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — as a trans-national terrorist organization, citing its decades-long record of violence at home and abroad.
The campaign follows a June 3 letter from U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., asking President Donald Trump to open a formal review that could place the Muslim Brotherhood on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. Several American allies, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have already banned the Brotherhood.
A long, bloody history
Known in Sudan as the “Kizan,” the Islamist movement seized power in a 1989 coup and ruled for 30 years before a popular uprising toppled it in 2019. During its tenure, the movement hosted al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, planned the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and tried to assassinate Egypt’s president in 1995, according to U.S. and regional security officials.
Researchers say dozens of Islamist battalions linked to the movement have fought in Sudan’s current civil war alongside General al-Burhan’s SAF, which erupted on April 15, 2023, committing atrocities that include beheadings of civilians captured on widely shared videos.
Khalid Omar Yousif, a former cabinet minister and senior member of the opposition Samood alliance, told Sudan Peace Tracker the Islamist project “blew Sudan apart with genocide, then ignited the April 15 war, creating today’s worst humanitarian disaster.”
Babiker Faisal, head of the Federalists’ executive bureau, called the movement “extremist, violent and bent on physically eliminating political opponents.”
Former justice minister Nasreldin Abdel-Bari said the group built Sudan’s repressive security services and helped orchestrate the Oct. 25, 2021 coup that derailed the country’s democratic transition. “Given its historic ties to global jihadist networks and its record of sectarian incitement,” he said, “a terrorist designation is essential for justice and lasting peace.”
Broader trend
The push in Sudan mirrors steps elsewhere. Jordan outlawed the Brotherhood in April, while Russia, Kazakhstan and Austria have imposed bans or tight restrictions in recent years. Advocates say an international designation would freeze assets, block travel and curb the group’s ability to fund fighters.
Analyst Abdel-Monem El-Jak warned that Sudan’s post-revolution governments “failed to uproot the movement from the army, media and economy,” allowing it to regroup and prolong the war.
Whether Washington will act remains unclear. The State Department has previously cited “complex organizational structures” across multiple countries in resisting a blanket terrorist listing. But Sudanese campaigners argue their branch’s direct role in the current conflict makes it a special case.
“The Islamist movement is not just a political party,” Yousif said. “It is the engine of war in Sudan, and the region will not know stability until it is treated as such.”
