Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, underlined the country’s position on extremism, terrorism, and criminal activity on Monday.
Al-Burhan made the comments while speaking at a workshop on the “Role of Deradicalisation and Rehabilitation in Combating Terrorism” that the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) had put on in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
“Sudan, like other countries, faces the phenomenon of violent extremism and terrorism.
“We are making great efforts to combat these phenomena through various means, including the security services, issuing a number of legislation and laws, and ratifying many regional, international and bilateral agreements,” Burhan said.
The Sudanese president emphasised the CISSA’s importance in tackling issues like terrorism, extremism, cross-border crime, illegal immigration, and resolving all security issues on the continent of Africa.
CISSA, which was founded in Nigeria in 2004 to address the security issues facing the continent of Africa, currently consists of 54 African intelligence organisations.
Sudan has made progress in shutting down terrorism inside its borders. Sudan’s terrorist connection is not new and the country has been on the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism since August 1993. Sudan has been under diplomatic sanctions by the United Nations since 1996.
Many of the terrorist groups have a number of training camps in the country. Sudan, being the third largest African country (after the secession of South Sudan in 2011) is a common place to hide a terrorist training center.
Certain locations are known for training particular groups or people from certain countries. Camp al-Maokil near Shendi was for training Algerians and Tunisians. In early May 1990, some 60 Arabs from North Africa, France, and Belgium began to train in the Shambat district of Khartoum. In the al-Khalafiyya area north of Khartoum training took place for the Algerian Islamic Salvation Army and the Armed Islamic Group.
In Akhil al-Awliya on the banks of the Blue Nile, south of Khartoum more than 500 Palestinians, Syrians and Jordanians were trained.