The Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North, or SPLM–N, is a political party and militant organisation in the Republic of Sudan, based in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The group's armed forces are formally known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army–North or SPLA–N. As of 2017, its two factions, SPLM-N (Agar) and SPLM-N (al-Hilu) were engaged in fighting each other and against the government of Sudan, and as of 2023, the al-Hilu faction is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), while the leader of the Agar faction was appointed into the military-run government.
The Cabinet of Sudan usually refers to the chief executive body of the Republic of the Sudan. The Cabinet was dissolved following the 11 April 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. Chapter 5 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration defines the procedures which led to the nomination of Abdalla Hamdok as Prime Minister, and up to 20 Ministers in the Cabinet, during late August 2019, for the 39-month democratic transition. The Sudanese Women's Union protested against this. Under Article 19 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, the ministers of the Transitional Cabinet are ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the transition period.
The Supreme Court, located in Khartoum, is the highest judicial authority in Sudan, apart from the Constitutional Court, which under Article 30 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, is to be "an independent court, separate from the judicial authority." Nemat Abdullah Khair was appointed as Chief Justice of Sudan, thus becoming the President of the Supreme Court, on 10 October 2019.
The Sudan Revolutionary Front, or the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), is an alliance between Sudanese factions that was created in opposition to the government of President Omar al-Bashir. It was declared on 12 November 2011, following several months of support by Darfuri rebel groups for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North in the conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The Sudanese Revolution was a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état deposed President Omar al-Bashir on 11 April after thirty years in power, 3 June Khartoum massacre took place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that replaced al-Bashir, and in July and August 2019 the TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a Political Agreement and a Draft Constitutional Declaration legally defining a planned 39-month phase of transitional state institutions and procedures to return Sudan to a civilian democracy.
The Transitional Military Council (TMC) was the military junta governing Sudan that was established on 11 April 2019, after the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état that took place during the Sudanese Revolution, and was formally headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Inspector of the Armed Forces, after Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf resigned as leader one day following the coup.
The Khartoum massacre occurred on 3 June 2019, when the armed forces of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, headed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the immediate successor organisation to the Janjaweed militia, used heavy gunfire and tear gas to disperse a sit-in by protestors in Khartoum, killing over 100 people, with difficulties in estimating the actual numbers. At least forty of the bodies had been thrown in the River Nile. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were injured, hundreds of unarmed citizens were arrested, many families were terrorised in their home estates across Sudan, and the RSF raped more than 70 women and men. The Internet was almost completely blocked in Sudan in the days following the massacre, making it difficult to estimate the number of victims.
A series of political agreements among Sudanese political and military forces for a democratic transition in Sudan began in July 2019. Omar al-Bashir overthrew the democratically elected government of Sadiq al-Mahdi in 1989 and was himself overthrown in the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état, in which he was replaced by the Transitional Military Council (TMC) after months of sustained street protests. Following further protests and the 3 June Khartoum massacre, TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance agreed on 5 July 2019 to a 39-month transition process to return to democracy, including the creation of executive, legislative and judicial institutions and procedures.
The Forces of Freedom and Change is a wide political coalition of civilian and rebel coalitions of Sudanese groups, including the Sudanese Professionals Association, No to Oppression against Women Initiative, MANSAM, the Sudan Revolutionary Front, the National Consensus Forces, Sudan Call, the Unionist Gathering, and the Sudanese resistance committees, created in January 2019 during the 2018–19 Sudanese protests. The FFC drafted a "Declaration of Freedom and Change" and "Freedom and Change Charter" which called for president Omar al-Bashir to be removed from power, which occurred after several more months of protest in the April 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. The FFC continued coordinating protest actions, and in July 2019, negotiated a power-sharing plan with the Transitional Military Council (TMC) for a transition to return to democracy. The agreement was signed on 17 July 2019.
Abdalla Hamdok Al-Kinani is a Sudanese public administrator who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Sudan from 2019 to October 2021, and again from November 2021 to 2 January 2022. Prior to his appointment, Hamdok served in numerous national and international administrative positions. From November 2011 to October 2018, he was deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). UNECA staff described Hamdok as "[a] diplomat, a humble man and a brilliant and disciplined mind". In 2020, Hamdok was named among Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential figures of the year.
The Transitional Sovereignty Council is the collective head of state of Sudan, formed on 20 August 2019, by the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration. It was dissolved by Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the October 2021 Sudanese coup d'état and reconstituted the following month with new membership, effectively changing it from a unity government to a military junta.
Raja Nicola Eissa Abdel-Masih is a civilian member of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Sudan's collective transitional head of state. She was chosen for this position as one of six civilians to hold seats in the original 11-member council. She was the only one of them whose name was agreed upon through a consensus between the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) and the Transitional Military Council (TMC), as was foreseen under the terms of the Draft Constitutional Declaration of August 2019. She is the only civilian member of the TSC to have been reinstated by Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan after he seized power in the 2021 military coup d'état.
Nemat Abdullah Mohamed Khair is a Sudanese judge of the Sudanese Supreme Court who became Chief Justice of Sudan on 10 October 2019 until 15 May 2021. As such, under Article 29.(3) of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, she is also the president of the Supreme Court of Sudan and is "responsible for administering the judicial authority before the Supreme Judicial Council." Khair is the first woman Chief Justice of Sudan.
The Transitional Legislative Council of Sudan is an interim legislative body that was planned to have been formed in Sudan as a stage of the 2019 plans for a Sudanese transition to democracy.
Intisar el-Zein Soughayroun is a professor of archeology at the University of Khartoum. In early September 2019 Soughayroun became the Sudanese Minister for Higher Education in the Transitional Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
Lena el-Sheikh Omer Majhoub became the Sudanese Minister of Labour and Social Development in early September 2019 in the Transitional Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
The Sudanese peace process consists of meetings, written agreements and actions that aim to resolve the War in Darfur, the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and armed conflicts in central, northern and eastern Sudan.
The Khartoum massacre investigation is an official investigation of the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre and other human rights violations of the Sudanese Revolution, mandated under Article 7.(16) of the Sudanese August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, to cover "violations committed on 3 June 2019, and events and incidents where violations of the rights and dignity of civilian and military citizens were committed." The men-only investigation committee of the massacre, rapes and other human rights violations is headed by human rights lawyer Nabil Adib. The No to Oppression against Women Initiative protested against the men-only composition of the commission.
Nabil Adib Abdalla is a Sudanese human rights lawyer who was nominated on 20 October 2019 as head of the investigation commission of the 3 June Khartoum massacre that took place during the Sudanese Revolution.
Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman is a Sudanese politician who was the youngest member of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan. Under Article 19 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, al-Faki, as is the case for the other members of the Sovereignty Council, is ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the 39-month transition to democracy period. The Sovereignty Council was later dissolved in October 2021 after a military coup led by Abdelfattah El Burhan in the 25th of October 2021. Elfaki was arrested illegally for over 2 months without trial, following this coup.
