Sudan’s ousted ambassador to the US says resorting to ‘the gun’ doesn’t aid the revolution

Nureldin Satti: Well, I learned about it, to be very frank with you, through the media, to start with, at the early hours, and some friends started calling from all around the world at the early hours of Oct. 25. And of course, what went through my mind was extreme disappointment and distress for what has happened. Because frankly, I expected everything but this. After all that we have gone through throughout the years, the decades, and the agreements that we have concluded between the civilian and the military components of the government, we thought that we would be able to resolve our problems peacefully without resorting to the gun.

I am resisting that because he is not telling the truth. How can you act to the benefit of the revolution when you are using the gun to do that? The revolution, you know, one of the basic foundations of our thinking is that we are going to resolve our problems peacefully.

Well, my role is to continue to support my people, the people of Sudan who have taken to the streets to resist this military coup and to continue my contacts here in the US in order to see what can be done about this and encourage the United States to put pressure on those who carried this coup in order to change course and to accept, to take things back to what they were before the coup.

Well, more of what they are doing now. They are now putting pressure on Burhan and his people. They’re contacting, they’re building I’d say a kind of consensus with a number of countries from the West and elsewhere. And of course, when the time comes, they will have to apply more pressure by using some concrete, you know, measures and decisions that would be more forcefully, that would convince Gen. Burhan that it’s not in his interest to continue on that course.

In principle, of course, I would have hoped that the Sudanese received that money, but they have to receive it in proper conditions. If they received it in the current circumstances, my fear is that they are going to be squandered or used for other purposes. So, I suppose it’s good that they are talking about a pause and they’re not talking about, you know, repealing or going back on their promises.

Yes, I’m extremely worried, extremely worried because we are already seeing, you know, some signs that we are going back to the situation that we were in before I came here and before the revolution actually. I came here because a revolution has taken place in Sudan. That’s why I was appointed here. Now, I do not want us to go back to the situation that we were in before. Many decades, you know, a tug-of-war between Sudan, the United States, the international community. Sanctions, wars and violence. You know, that kind of thing. It is the people of Sudan who are suffering from that. So we need to do all that we can to prevent us from going in that direction.
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My message is twofold. One to Burhan and his people to stop this aggression against the peaceful Sudanese people. It is aggression. They are shooting and using live ammunition in the streets of Khartoum and other cities. And you know, this is really a violation of human rights and they will be, of course, held accountable for that. There’s no doubt about that. So I’m telling them to stop doing this, and you have to control your troops so that they do not commit those crimes. My second, of course, message is to our own people that they should keep pushing for change. There is no other course. And that is going to be a lot of sacrifices, many people are going to die, but at the end, you know, freedom. We shall be paying a very high price for freedom, and the Sudanese people have accepted to pay that price.