Tensions persist between Khartoum and Riyadh

Saudi King Salman receives Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir at his palace in Riyadh in October 2016. (Photo: Saudi Press Agency)


Tensions persist between Khartoum and Riyadh 

By Africa Intelligence

Frustrated by the waning support of his Wahhabi ally, Omar al-Bashir is nurturing his relations with Ankara and Doha.

The Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir is busily engaged at present in winning Qatar and Turkey over to his side to make up for Saudi Arabia’s broken promises. Eager for economic and financial assistance, Khartoum severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 in the hope of securing Saudi investment in agriculture and hydroelectric dams. But as the economic crisis reaches proportions that the Sudanese population can no longer bear (ION 1469), the country’s ruling Islamist movement, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, is still waiting to see the Saudi subsidies. To make matters worse, Saudi Arabia recently banished tens of thousands of Sudanese nationals on the grounds that they had no residence permit. In a bid to win the favours of the two main players within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Khartoum nevertheless agreed to contribute 4,000 soldiers to the war effort in Yemen, but Riyadh considers that these ex-Janjaweed militia, now integrated into the Sudan Defence Force (ION 1445), are behaving like mercenaries. In addition, Saudi Arabia is of the view that Sudan is not firmly committed to severing links with the Iranian mullahs, having constructed its security apparatus with the help of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Riyadh is also unhappy about al-Bashir maintaining relations with Doha and Sudan’s diplomatic honeymoon with Turkey, which resulted in the handover of Suakin Island to Ankara in return for promises of investment, reconstruction and military cooperation (ION 1466).

A missive from the emir of Qatar Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani, delivered to al-Bashir in Khartoum on 11 March and urging him not to make any ‘concessions in the face of Egyptian intransigence‘ was a step too far Riyadh, and it prompted a hasty visit by al-Bashir to Cairo on 19 March to meet his counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But he was careful not to raise any contentious issues…

Sponsored Ads