“The Islamists Are Thieves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Mahjoub Fadl Badri
The number of exclamation marks in the title matches the number of letters in the familiar refrain that begins and ends almost every discussion with one of the Qahata supporters:
“The Islamists are thieves!”
The Islamists are certainly not angels. Some among them may well have unlawfully taken what did not belong to them and therefore deserve to be held accountable. However, the proportion of wrongdoers within their ranks is very small—perhaps no greater than the proportion of honest people within other political groups, including the Qahata (supporters of the Freedom and Change Alliance “FCA”). After all, it is hardly fair to compare a movement whose membership runs into the millions with another whose entire membership would scarcely fill a small minibus—or perhaps a single coach if we are being especially generous!
My colleague, Osama Abdel Majid, recently wrote an article entitled “Sudan’s Gold and Sawiris”, in which he discussed claims that the Sudanese Government had sold its shares in Ariab Mining Company to the Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris.
The facts, however, are rather different.
Since the company’s establishment in the 1990s, the French company La Mancha held a 44 per cent stake in Ariab Mining, while the Sudanese Government, represented by the Ministry of Minerals, owned the remaining 56 per cent.
At one stage, La Mancha requested that the Ministry of Minerals relinquish the Government’s shares in Ariab. The request arose because the French company was facing significant pressure due to unilateral United States economic sanctions imposed on Sudan.
The Minister of Minerals at the time, Kamal Abdel Latif, rejected the proposal outright.
Indeed, he went further, informing La Mancha that if it wished to withdraw from the partnership, the Sudanese Government stood ready to purchase its shares under its pre-emptive rights.
Later, in 2012, Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris acquired La Mancha through a transaction on the Toronto Stock Exchange. From that point onwards, nothing changed regarding Ariab’s ownership structure, except that Sawiris became the new owner of La Mancha’s interests in Sudan, Australia and Côte d’Ivoire.
Ariab had already completed a feasibility study for a major copper extraction project known as the VMS Project, with an estimated cost of US$450 million.
Sawiris offered to finance the project on condition that the Sudanese Government surrender its shareholding in Ariab.
Once again, Minister Kamal firmly rejected the proposal.
His successor adopted exactly the same position when Sawiris later expressed his desire to end the partnership.
Ultimately, the Sudanese Government purchased his shares in Ariab, bringing the partnership to an end.
As a result, Ariab became a wholly Sudanese-owned company—a status it retains to this day.
Yet somehow the slogan remains:
“The Islamists are thieves!”
The reality, therefore, is that no sale or transfer of the Sudanese Government’s shares in Ariab ever took place—whether for payment or otherwise—as some people continue to allege on the basis of little more than idle gossip.
Neither during Kamal Abdel Latif’s tenure nor under his successor, Dr Ahmed Al-Karouri, did such a transaction occur.
But the preferred narrative remains:
“The Islamists are thieves!”
There is an old Sudanese anecdote about two men walking together when they spotted a dark object in the distance that neither could clearly identify.
“It’s a sheep,” said one.
“No,” replied the other, “it’s a kite.”
They argued all the way there:
“A sheep!”
“A kite!”
When they finally drew close, the object suddenly took flight.
The first man exclaimed:
“I swear it’s a sheep—even if it flew away!”
Some people cling to their conclusions with exactly the same determination.
As the saying goes:
“Talking is the pastime of fools; silence is the refuge of the weak; listening is the adornment of the wise.”
For a very long time, there have been those who continue to dream the dreams of their predecessors—dreams of taking Sudan’s gold and carrying off its people. Modernity may have required replacing the expression “slave hunting” with “recruiting agents”, but one thing has never changed:
Gold remains gold.
And yet, despite all the facts…
“The Islamists are thieves!”

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=15363