Al-Misbah Abu Zaid Talha, commander of the Al-Bara Bin Malik battalion, dismissed the role of pro-democracy military factions in the ongoing fighting in Omdurman in a video released by his group on Sunday.
“There are people in Omdurman and Khartoum who have donned military uniforms and celebrate by chanting: ‘The army to the barracks, the righteous to power,’” Talha said to his fighters, according to a statement from the Omdurman Old Resistance Committees on Monday.
Talha further warned those who arrived in Omdurman and Khartoum after the intense fighting, referencing a former Islamist leader.
“To them, we say: if you want to fight the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, you’re welcome. But if you come for another purpose, this is not the time. Let me remind you of the words of our sheikh and former First Vice President, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha: “We have shadow battalions, and you know them well,’” he added.
The Omdurman Old Resistance Committees swiftly rejected Talha’s remarks, denouncing them as an attempt to intimidate the revolutionary movement. They asserted that Talha was not a legitimate voice for the army but rather a mobilized supporter.
“He found space to speak only because of the freedom won by the people in their fight against the militias,” the committees stated in a statement seen by Sudans Post, accusing him of belittling the resistance and misrepresenting the spirit of the revolution.
The committees invoked Omdurman’s history of resistance and criticized Talha for undermining the contributions of the city’s residents, reiterating popular revolutionary slogans such as “The army to the barracks, the Janjaweed must dissolve, only a national army, and down with the RSF?” and “No militia can rule a state.”
They highlighted the fierce resistance in Omdurman’s central market against the RSF, which they described as a militia linked to the Islamist movement.
The committees suggested Talha’s statements were driven by a desire for proximity to power and warned against his reference to the former Islamist leader, Ali Osman Taha, whose regime was overthrown by the December Revolution.
Fighting between the SAF and the RSF continues across Sudan, with some pro-revolution groups claiming to fight alongside the army.
