Demonstrators Reject UNITAMS, Calls for Perthes Departure from Sudan

January 25, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Some thousands of Sudanese gathered on Wednesday outside the headquarters of the United Nations Integrated Transition Support Mission (UNITAMS) in Khartoum to express their rejection of the mission and called on its chief to leave the country.

The demonstration was organized by a group called the Sudanese Initiative for National Sovereignty. The banners carried by the protesters read “Respect for National Sovereignty”, “National Decision or Leave”, and “Because we are a Sovereign State, We Reject your Interference in our Internal Affairs.”

The participants in the march raised pictures of the UNITAMS Head, Volker Perthes calling on him to leave the country.

Also, they expressed their support for the military coup that ejected the Forces for Freedom and Change from the transitional government.

The Sudanese authorities did not disperse the protest as they used to deal with anti-coup protesters who weekly take to the streets to voice their oppodition to the military takeover.

Various posts and photos published on social media confirmed the participation of many figures affiliated with the regime of President Omar al-Bashir and the Islamic movement.

Amin Hassan Omer a leading member of the dissolved National Congress Party of Omer al-Bahir wrote on FaceBook bout the demonstration.

“The message of the people has reached Volker, but it is directed to (UN Secretary-General Antonio) Guterres and the Excellencies the ambassadors (in Khartoum). If they do not respect our government, then they should respect our people,” he said.

Also, he hailed the sitting organized at the same time at the embassies of Norway and the United Kingdom.

For his part, one of the organisers of the demonstration Fadlallah Rabih said they rejected to meet UNITAMS head because a staff member of the UN mission refused that the media accompany the delegated who would submit their memorandum to Perthes.

In a statement issued after the protest, UNITAMS said they offered to receive a delegation of the protesters but they refused.

“UNITAMS is here on request of Sudan & with a clear mandate from Security Council (2524),” said the mission.

The protest took place as the UN mission has launched a process aiming to create a common ground between the revolution’s forces and the military leaders to achieve the task of the transition paving the way for a democratic rule.

After the military coup of October 25, 2021, the coup leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan reappointed hundreds of Islamists at all the levels of the administration and reinstated de facto the machinery of the former regime.

(ST)