Questions are multiplying about the role of military-appointed prime minister Kamil Idris and his ties with Islamist activists vying for control of the government in the east 

New Prime Minister Kamil Idris’s decision to dissolve the government in preparation to form a new cabinet breaches the 2020 peace agreement, according to some political parties, including the Justice and Equality Movement. 

Appointed on 31 May, Idris is the first civilian prime minister since Abdalla Hamdok resigned in 2022, and the collapse of the Transitional Government that took office as a result of the Juba peace accord (AC Vol 63 No 19, Junta's double-talk on transition). Hamdok told Africa Confidential in Marrakech that he totally rejects Idris’s appointment, adding that most states in the African Union would vote against the readmission of Sudan to the AU as long as it stays under military rule.

JEM’s political secretary Mutasim Ahmed Saleh warned that dissolving the government ‘threatens the credibility of commitments to peace parties and weakens trust in the political transition process’.

Under the Juba deal, JEM was assigned the finance and social welfare ministries, as well as several government bodies, including the Social Security Fund and the Tax Authority.

A former civil servant with the UN at the World Intellectual Property Organization, Idris’s career has been peppered with disputes. Some have accused him of corruption. His bid to run against former President Omer Ahmed Hassan el Bashir as an independent candidate in 2010 was widely seen as a ploy on behalf of the Islamists to make the highly-orchestrated elections look more credible.

That also positioned Idris as a useful apparatchik for Beshir and his Islamist supporters. Given the growing political and military influence of Islamist groups over the current regime in Port Sudan and Khartoum, this raises alarms about Idris’s credibility.

Idris’s appointment is widely seen as an attempt by Sudan Armed Forces leader General Abdel Fattah el Burhan to legitimise a SAF-dominated government in Khartoum. Idris has announced the launch of a comprehensive national dialogue, and has held talks with Shamsaldin al Kabbashi, a member of the Transitional Sovereign Council and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army (AC Vol 64 No 2, History won't repeat itself). By Africa Confidential