The Justice and Equality Movement, led by General Suleiman Sandal Haqqar, accused SAF of waging the current war to return Sudan to Islamist domination and enable the systematic looting of the country’s resources by entrenched elites.
In a statement issued to media to mark Sudan’s Independence Day, the movement said the fighting unfolding across the country is not aimed at protecting the state or its citizens, but rather at preserving the power of Islamist networks and their allies who have benefited from Sudan’s wealth since independence.
The group said successive military and authoritarian regimes, now represented by SAF, have relied on deliberate marginalisation policies that stripped large sections of the population of their basic rights to education, healthcare, public services, and a dignified life, while monopolising power and wealth in the hands of a narrow elite.
Justice and Equality argued that the ongoing conflict represents the final attempt by SAF and its allied Islamist factions to cling to authority and reverse demands for genuine political change, warning that the war is being used as a cover to block democratic transformation.
The movement described the conflict as the end of what it called the “First Republic”, dominated by military rule and exclusion, and the beginning of a “Second Republic” founded on freedom, justice, and equality. It called for the establishment of a civilian democratic system and the creation of a new professional army placed under full civilian oversight, ending SAF’s political dominance once and for all.
