A dispute over cabinet seats has split Sudan’s main pro-SAF alliance after Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan installed a new prime minister without consulting the armed groups that backed him in the civil war against the rival Rapid Support Forces.
Al-Burhan on Monday named former U.N. official Kamil Idris as premier, then swore him in and let him dissolve the outgoing cabinet. The move sidelined the Joint Forces—a bloc of rebel movements that signed the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement and were guaranteed 25 percent of ministries and three seats on the ruling Sovereign Council.
“Our portfolios are a hard-won right,” Joint Forces leaders said in a statement, rejecting any attempt to trim their share in the promised transitional government. One commander told the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat they might “re-evaluate our position—even talk to the RSF” if shut out.
Idris says he wants a non-partisan technocrat cabinet, a plan critics fear would reopen the quota deal and make room for newer pro-SAF militias such as the Islamist-leaning Northern Shield and Baraa bin Malik battalions that fought alongside junta troops this year.
The rift has erupted as Sudan’s 14-month war grinds on. The Joint Forces—once neutral—threw their weight behind the SAF in mid-2023 and have held key front lines in Darfur and central Sudan. SAF allies have since accused them of threatening to quit the battlefield to press their political demands—charges the rebels call a smear campaign.
Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, himself a former rebel leader, signaled compromise Tuesday, saying peace-deal ministers could keep key economic and mining posts while the SAF retains defense and interior portfolios. Darfur regional governor Minni Arko Minnawi said he has met twice with al-Burhan this week to “salvage the partnership.”
