Sudan: Most ruthless army general appointed intelligence chief

KHARTOUM – The Sudanese government on Thursday appointed pone of the country’s most ruthless army generals to head the intelligence service, days after the head of the spy agency said he was resigning.

General Abu Bakr Damplab offered his resignation on Wednesday after coming under fire following a bloody mutiny by the military wing of his agency on Tuesday.

Sovereign Council Spokesman Mohamed al-Faki announced that the collegial presidency in a meeting on Thursday accepted Damplab’s resignation.

“After consultations with all the concerned parties, Lt-Gen Jamal Abdel-Majeed Qasim Alsayed, head of the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency, has been appointed Director of the General Intelligence Service.”

For his part, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok confirmed on his Facebook and Twitter accounts the appointment stressing that the decision was taken jointly by the Council of Ministers and the Sovereign Council.

“In search of stability for Sudan, and after discussions with Lt. Gen Burhan, I am glad to announce our joint decision to accept the resignation of Gen Abu-Bakr Dambalab from his post as Director Gen of the General Intelligence Services & to appoint Gen Jamal Abdelmajeed instead,” he wrote to underscore the “successful partnership” between the civil-military tandem in Sudan.

Al-Burhan on Wednesday had announced Damplab’s resignation.

The former GIS chief had been severely criticized by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo who had accused Damplab of negligence in his dealings with the disarmament, and demobilization process of the disbanded Operations Department.

The newly appointed GIS director had been removed from the army by the ousted President Omer al-Bashir. At the time he was a major general and served as deputy chief of the military intelligence.

However, Alsayed reintegrated the army, after the regime change and was appointed by al-Burhan at the head of the military intelligence on 29 October 2019.

In an unprecedented move, the GIS released a statement Thursday, to express “its deep regret at the events that occurred on Tuesday.

It further sought to explain the circumstances of the mutiny saying it had started in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan before to reach Khartoum.