In a move widely derided as political theater, General al-Burhan’s junta (SAF) have appointed Dr. Kamil Idris as “Prime Minister” — a title that now rings hollow in a country torn apart by war, corruption, and military domination.
Far from signaling a shift toward civilian rule, Idris’s appointment is the latest attempt by SAF junta to paper over a regime built on violence and impunity.
The Illusion Of a Civilian Face
Idris’s installation is not the beginning of reform. It is the continuation of a pattern: appointing technocratic figures with questionable pasts to give a human face to an inhuman system. Idris was forced to resign from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under a cloud of corruption allegations.
Now, he returns to public life as a pliant figurehead for a junta that has shelled cities, targeted civilians, and dragged the country into civil war.
The timing is telling. With the international community increasingly alarmed by atrocities committed by the SAF, including reported war crimes in Darfur, Port Sudan’s generals are scrambling to rebrand. Kamil Idris is the window dressing — not the architect of a democratic transition.
Idris was not elected. He was not nominated through consultation. He was not even selected through a national dialogue. He was appointed behind closed doors by the same junta clique responsible for dismantling Sudan’s last fragile attempt at civilian governance in 2021.
Idris not a return to civilian rule — it’s a recycling of failed strategies meant to confuse foreign diplomats and pacify donors.
There is no indication Idris will have meaningful authority. His cabinet is reportedly 25% composed of armed factions that signed the Juba Peace Agreement — many of whom have benefited from war, not suffered from it.
The rest includes junta loyalists and Islamists tied to the ousted Bashir regime. This is less a government than a warlord coalition.
Hollow words hollow deeds
Idris’s first public remarks were emblematic of the entire enterprise: vague, visionless, and devoid of urgency. He offered no plan for ending the war. No mention of junta abuses. No roadmap for returning power to the people. Instead, he served up tired clichés about “reform” while civilians die in displacement camps and airstrikes flatten towns.
Legal experts and civil society groups quickly dismissed the speech as “tone-deaf” and “deliberately empty.” As one Sudanese analyst put it: “He speaks of a house on fire as if it just needs a paint job.”
The move is also aimed squarely at external players. For Gulf allies like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Idris provides plausible deniability: support for Port Sudan’s junta can now be framed as backing a “civilian government.”
For the West, Idris is meant to confuse the policy debate — to delay sanctions, ease pressure, and stall diplomatic isolation.
But international legitimacy cannot be manufactured. The European Union and United States have signaled skepticism, seeing the move as a smokescreen rather than a solution.
SAF Junta is the Institutionalised Problem In Sudan
The core issue isn’t who holds the title of Prime Minister. It’s that titles mean nothing under junta rule. The SAF and its allies continue to monopolize power, weaponize humanitarian aid, loot public resources, and suppress dissent. No reshuffle can change that.
The only way out is structural transformation: full civilian authority, dismantling of the junta’s economic empire, constitutional reform, and a genuinely inclusive political process — not one choreographed by generals.
Kamil Idris may wear civilian clothes, but he represents the same political architecture that has driven Sudan to the brink of state collapse.
His appointment is not a solution; it’s an insult — to the revolutionaries in the streets, to the civilians under bombardment, and to the very idea of democratic governance.
Until power is returned to the people, Sudan’s crisis will persist — no matter who sits in the Prime Minister’s chair.
