Swar Al-Zahab .. The man who brought the Brotherhood of Sudan to rule

On the morning of Thursday, 18 October, the former Sudanese President, Marshal Abdulrahman Sowar Al-Zahab, passed away at the age of 83. The Sudanese street was split between those who sympathize with the late and describe him as a zealot in power and those who remember how the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sowar Al-Zahab began to resonate with the politicians and the military since the coup d’état of 1971, which was led by General Hashim al-Atta (1936-1971) against Sudanese President Jaafar al-Numeiri.

But it failed and ended with the execution of Atta and his companions; Swar Al-Zahab refused to hand over the  military White City where he was born in 1935, and he was responsible for securing it for the coup.

This incident was a major point in his career, and he was not awarded a distinction or promotion but was completely removed from the army. In 1972, he was disqualified from military service and sent to Qatar.

Abdulrahman Muhammad Hassan Sowar Al-Zahab traveled to Qatar while he is heavily laden with military skills and vocational skills he has learned since joining the military college he graduated from in 1955. Of course, the Gulf state used this fact to build its police and security forces.

After the rise of Swar Al-Zahab’s shares  at the Qatari authority and his job as military adviser to Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the former ruler of Qatar, the man returned to the Sudanese army.

After his return to the army Swar Al-Zahab took the post of Minister of Defense, at the same time the anger on the Sudanese street against the then-incumbent President Jafar Nimeiri was intensified.

With the rise of anger, historically known as the “April 1985 uprising,” the man announced his bias toward the people and met with military leaders to decide to exclude Nimeiri from ruling.

As commander of the armed forces, Abdul Rahman assumed the presidency for a temporary period and then handed power to the elected government led by Sadiq al-Mahdi in a white shot in where a  blood drop was not shed.

The man has already handed over power on time, leaving behind political and military work completely and heading to the religious call. He then served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Dawa Organization, whose charitable and advocacy activities are spread in nearly 40 countries.

After the popular and Arab rejection of the Brotherhood’s presence in the region, especially after it was declared a terrorist group by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the group tried to seek a dialogue with Swar to exploit it in alleviating hostility. Indeed, the veteran military announced in November 2016 that he was ready to mediate between the Egyptian regime and the brotherhood But these efforts have failed from the outset due to the awareress of the Egyptian authority of the danger of the brotherhood.