SACP calls for immediate democratic transition, an end to dictatorship in Sudan

16 April 2019

The South African Communist Party pledges solidarity with the people of Sudan, the broad masses in particular, the Sudanese Communist Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). Accordingly, the SACP is calling for an immediate transition to democracy in Sudan and for an end to dictatorship. The SACP is calling on Western imperialist states and reactionary Arab states to stop their inference in Sudan.

The Sudanese people must be allowed to solve the problems Sudan is faced with and to define its development path independently. Their fundamental right to self-determination and exercise of democratic national sovereignty should be respected fully and unconditionally. To the extent that assistance is required, that must be peaceful and democratically defined by the Sudanese people. The international multilateral bodies, starting here in Africa with the African Union, should play their role in terms of international law.     

The people of Sudan have been pushing an end to the dictatorship that until recently was personified by Omar al-Bashir. Over the past weeks their struggle advanced to a nodal point of change, among others through mass mobilisation. However Western imperialist forces, in collaboration with reactionary Arab governments and Sudanese army generals who have for years worked together with and defended al-Bashir, hijacked the impending victory of the masses and staged a coup. The results include a postponement of the victory of the democratic masses and new machination to abort the victory of the people.  

According to a public correspondence issued by the Sudanese Communist Party on 15 April 2019, the domestic coup leaders, the new military junta, declared a state of emergency for three months, ordered the masses of protesters to stay at home, and imposed a curfew from sunset to morning. In response, millions of protesters defied the hijackers of their victory and continued their daily mass actions. The slogan “Freedom, Peace and Revolution is the People’s Choice” reverberates across the entire country. It has now become the morning greeting of the Sudanese people.

The SACP is calling for intensified international solidarity with the people of Sudan. The Party will, in the coming period, embark on the intensification of the just international solidarity.  

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson & Head of Communications, SACP, 16 April 2019