Al-Burhan: A Pawn in the Hands of Regional Influence

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The Boat of Truth. Abu Huraira Zain al-Abidin Abd al-Halim. In the modern history of Sudan, no leader has emerged who championed patriotism while simultaneously destroying its foundations like Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The man who presents himself as the protector of the state has become its greatest threat—not only because he failed to manage the war, but because he failed to be a leader possessing the minimum level of political or moral courage to bring about peace or advocate for it. For Al-Burhan, patriotism is not a principled stance but a political decoration he hangs in his speeches, locking himself in the illusion of the presidency and his hollow dreams. When poor miners are bombed, he is silent. When the country’s sovereignty is violated, he justifies it. And when civilians are killed, he disappears. A leader who does not defend his people has no right to speak of the nation. Patriotism is not words; it is blood protected and sovereignty preserved. Al-Burhan has done neither. The best evidence is the incident involving poor, struggling miners on the northern border with a neighboring, sisterly state—not Israel, but Egypt. Who would believe that an Arab, neighboring, Muslim state would mobilize its air force to strike and kill unarmed civilians? This incident will have consequences if Egypt does not apologize, provide compensation to the victims, and commit to not repeating this aggression. Egypt should not exploit the weakness of the nation and the weakness of patriotism in Al-Burhan, and it should have looked strategically at its relationship with Sudan. All Al-Burhan did was form an investigation committee; how could the nation's sovereignty be violated without his intelligence agencies—which are busy torturing—or his radars detecting it? Where did he and his patriotic-less generals come from? When part of Halayeb was occupied in the past, General Abdullah Khalil moved the army to protect it. What did he do? He formed a committee. What a disgrace to the nation and to patriotism! He does not deserve the honor of the Sudanese military. If there were armed forces and patriotic officers, this event would be enough to dismiss him and place him in the darkness of prison, but the army has become preoccupied with politics and trade rather than protecting the nation's borders, which are violated in broad daylight, to which he responds by forming a committee as if he were an administrative manager in a department. Sudan today is not a state with an independent decision, but a sphere of influence where regional interests intersect. And Al-Burhan, instead of standing against this influence, has become part of it. He transformed from a leader supposed to protect Sudan's independence into a tool in the hands of foreign powers, relying on their support, remaining silent when his country's sovereignty is violated, and turning a blind eye to interventions that shake the state's entity. This is not just political weakness, but a lack of will in a leader who has lost the ability to make a single national decision. The war that destroyed Sudan is a major failure and a direct result of Al-Burhan's decisions since his coup against the transitional civil government. He did not succeed in preventing it, did not succeed in managing it, and did not succeed in ending it. He let cities fall, having already fallen himself in the test of nation and patriotism; he let civilians face death, let the country crumble, and sent his family abroad to live in peace, while he continued to repeat empty rhetoric about restoring state security while establishing a state of security services and spies. He is a leader who does not know how to start a war or how to end one, and he does not deserve to lead a state. True courage lies in leading the people toward peace and achieving the peace of the brave. The most dangerous aspect of Al-Burhan's coup rule is not just the war, but the political vacuum that surrounds him. No project, no vision, no plan, no future. Just an authority looking for survival, even if the price is the total collapse of Sudan. A leader without a project is a national catastrophe, no matter how many slogans of patriotism he raises. He dwarfed the army and replaced it with dozens of militias, learned nothing from the experience of the Rapid Support Forces, and thinks he will succeed in his political stupidity. Sudan today needs a consensus-based civil leadership that possesses the courage to make decisions, not a general hiding behind patriotic rhetoric while letting the nation bleed. It needs a state project, not a power project; it needs an independent decision, not reliance on the outside; it needs the protection of citizens, not the justification of their deaths. Al-Burhan, in the eyes of many, is no longer part of the solution, but part of the ruin, chaos, and disorder itself. Al-Burhan is not the leader Sudan needs, nor the man who can rebuild the state, nor the general who can lead the country toward stability. He is a leader who raises the banner of the nation while letting the nation erode, talks about sovereignty while allowing its erosion, and promises peace while fueling the war. Sudan deserves a civilian leader through a transitional civil government and does not deserve Al-Burhan and his brother in totalitarianism, Hemedti. abuza56@gmail.com The post Al-Burhan: A Pawn in the Hands of Regional Influence appeared first on Sudanile.