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Awad al-Karim Ahmad Muhammad Ibn Auf

Sudan’s Defence Minister, Lt Gen Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, who was sworn-in as interim president of Sudan and head of the military transitional council, announced that he had steppped down after little more than a day in office. His successor, Lt Gen Abdelfattah Burhan, Inspector-General of the Armed Forces, was sworn-in as new interim president on the evening of Friday 12 April 2019.

Lt. Gen. Awad al-Karim Ahmad Muhammad Ibn Auf [aka Ibnouf], Minister of Defense of Sudan, was once characterized as a "younger, more radical version" of Al-Bashir. AUF, Awad Ibn (a.k.a. AUF, Awad Muhammad Ibn; a.k.a. AUF, Mohammed Ahmed Awad Ibn; a.k.a. AWF, Awad Ahmad Ibn; a.k.a. AWF, Awad Ibn; a.k.a. NAUF, Awad Mohammed Ahmed Ebni; a.k.a. OAF, Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn; a.k.a. OUF, Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn); DOB circa 1954; nationality Sudan.

On 23 August 2015, he was appointed as Defense Minister. Ibn Auf was appointed as vice president 23 February 2019 by the long-time ruler, while also retaining his defense portfolio. Protests against al-Bashir, who took power in 1989 and is wanted by the International Criminal Court, erupted in December over rising food prices. They quickly evolved into demands for the 75-year-old's departure.

At 1:45 pm 11 April 2019, General Awad Ibn Auf announced the takeover of the Government by a military council. He announced three months of state of emergency, a curfew from 10 pm to 3 am, and closure of the airport and all land borders for a 24 hour period. According to reports in Arabic-language media, about 100 officials have been detained by the military, while Bashir has been put under house arrest.

Awad ibn Auf was sworn in as chairman of the new Military Transitional Council following the overthrow of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Ibn Auf took the constitutional oath in the capital Khartoum in a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice Abdul Majid Idris which was broadcast live on state television. Kamal Abdul-Marouf Al-Mahi, chairman of the Joint Staff Command, was sworn in as deputy chairman of the council.

But protesters were unsatisfied by the move, with some reportedly chanting, “The first one fell, the second one will, too.” The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) restated its demand for power to be handed immediately to "a transitional civilian government". The SPA, which had spearheaded months-long anti-government protests, said "What happened was that the masks merely changed, it is the same regime that the people revolted against, seeking to remove it from its roots... We are still in the path of true revolution … our martyrs have shed their blood in pursuit for freedom and justice".

The Alliance for Freedom and Change, one of the groups involved in organising the anti-Bashir protests, accused Ibn Auf of engineering a "coup" and "bringing back the same faces and the same institutions which our people rose against". Hajouj Kouka, a member of the anti-government Girifna resistance movement, said Ibn Auf's announcement was a "slap in the face". Kouka said: "The three-month state of emergency and two years transition is not what we were fighting for. This [Ibn Auf] is exactly who we are fighting, he was the vice president under Bashir and he is the system we were fighting."

The opposition Sudanese Communist Party slammed Ibn Auf's statement on the changes in the country's government, labeling them as a military coup and calling on the people to continue rallying until their demands are met. "This statement amounts to a state coup … We stand against military coups, and we demand those who led the coup to transfer power to the [opposition] forces of the [Alliance for] Freedom and Change. We call on the people to continue rallies in all the Sudanese cities until their demands are met", the party's political bureau wrote.

Russia will continue its cooperation with Sudan no matter which party assumes control of the African country, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian lower house's International Affairs Committee, told reporters 11 April 2019. "Whoever comes to power… in Sudan, they will undoubtedly seek cooperation with Russia. I am confident that we will maintain relations with this country in the most active way", the lawmaker said.

The United States on 11 April 209 urged Sudan’s army to bring civilians into government after ousting veteran leader Omar al-Bashir, saying an announced two-year timeline was too long. The United States calls “on transitional authorities to exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters. “The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future and the Sudanese people have been clear and are demanding a civilian-led transition,” he said. “The United States position is the Sudanese people should be allowed to do so sooner than two years from now,” he said.

The solution to Sudan’s crisis will come from protesters and not the military, the head of the political committee of the transitional Military Council that overthrew President Omar al-Bashir said on 12April 2019. In a press conference, Lieutenant General Omar Zeinalabdin, the head of the political committee of the transitional Military Council said: "We are the protectors of the demands of the people and that is by consensus from the political entities." He added: "We are not greedy for power." He said the Military Council plans to hold a dialogue with the protesters who have been camped out outside the ministry of defense. But the military council warned it would tolerate no breaches of security after protesters defied a night-time curfew to keep up a sit-in demanding immediate civilian rule.

Ibn Awf was born in a village in the village of Qari north of the capital Khartoum. He joined the military college to graduate as a lieutenant in the 23rd batch. He received military training in Egypt, worked with artillery and worked as a teacher at the College of Command and Staff.

Ibn Auf was a member of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and a companion of Bashir's path before his overthrow. Loyal to the Islamic movement, he was close to the 1989 coup against al-Sadiq al-Mahdi's government , which allowed him to rise and step in military posts to serve as director of the security apparatus and director of the military intelligence.

In 2005, a UN fact-finding mission on the situation in Darfur concluded that Awad bin Auf was among those responsible for the deteriorating situation there. UN reports revealed that he was a link between the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed during the war in Darfur.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury 29 May 2007 blocked the assets of three Sudanese individuals, including two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, for their roles in fomenting violence and human rights abuses in Darfur. Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan's State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, was accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in the The Hague.

Sudan's head of Military Intelligence and Security, Awad Ibn Auf, was also designated, along with Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a rebel group that had refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement.

Harun and Auf are among Khartoum's senior leadership and had acted as liaisons between the Sudanese government and the Government-supported Janjaweed militias, which have attacked and brutalized innocent civilians in the region. The two individuals also provided the Janjaweed with logistical support and directed attacks. Hundreds of thousands of people had been killed and more than 2.5 million people had been displaced by violence and war since 2003.

Auf was believed at that time to be the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Sudanese Armed Forces. Formerly, Auf was Sudan's head of Military Intelligence and Security and has acted as liaison between the Sudanese government and the Government-supported Janjaweed militias, which have attacked and brutalized innocent civilians in the Darfur region. He has also provided logistical support for the Janjaweed and directed attacks.

In late 2008 plotting and deal-making within the National Congress Party (NCP) for a transition of President Omar al-Bashir from power had intensified but hit a predictable snag on the key issues of sequencing and personalities. There seems to be consensus within the regime that Al-Bashir "should go soon, preferably before an ICC arrest warrant is issued," to a gilded exile in Saudi Arabia from where, presumably, he could not be extradited to The Hague. The search focused on identifying an acceptable army general who would be agreeable to the different factions within the Islamist elite. Some saw the most likely military candidate SAF Deputy Chief of Staff General Adad Auf, but that "this would be much worse" than President Bashir due to Auf's well-known hardline tendencies.

Following his retirement from the army in 2010, as part of an institutional shake-up, Ibn Auf took a diplomatic role at the ministry of foreign affairs. Because of his role in improving Sudanese-Eritrean relations after he chaired the security committee for negotiations between the two countries, Ibn Awaf was chosen to assume the position of Director of Crisis Management at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was awarded the title of Ambassador after retiring from the army. He spent time in diplomatic posts in Egypt and Oman. He was appointed Consul General of Sudan in Cairo and then Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman.

He returned to the heart of the Khartoum political establishment in 2015. He took the post of Minister of National Defense in 2015, by a presidential decree issued by Bashir, after the presidential elections that year, which was won by Bashir. During his tenure as Minister of Defense, he worked to strengthen the arming of the Sudanese army with modern weapons and quality, and was known for his support for the participation of his forces in the coalition led by the Saudi-UAE alliance in Yemen.

Regard to the stalemate in Yemen, he is known for his defense of the participation of Sudanese forces in Yemen, stressing on several occasions Khartoum's insistence on the survival of its soldiers in Yemen within the coalition of support for legitimacy in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia. He told a news conference in 2018 that the Sudanese armed forces' participation in Yemen was "a moral duty and obligation".

Just days before the overthrow of Bashir, the Minister of Defense had a striking statement in which he stressed that the armed forces are the safety valve of the country, and will not overstate its security, unity and leadership. Sudan will be a trust in the armed forces and its history will not forgive its leaders.

During his meeting with the leaders of the armed forces, Ben Awf said that there are parties that are trying to exploit the current situation to create a rift in the armed forces and to cause strife between the components of the security system in the country, stressing that this will not be allowed, no matter what the sacrifice. He stressed in these statements that the armed forces are not against the aspirations of citizens, but will not allow the country to slide into chaos, and will not tolerate any manifestation of security chaos.

Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, made the following statement 11 April 2019 regarding the coup in Sudan: “While Omar al-Bashir will no longer terrorize the people of Sudan, I am concerned that Awad Ibn Auf, part of Mr. Bashir's inner circle, has proclaimed himself the head of a two-year transitional military government. Surely the Sudanese government's numerous victims have not forgotten his role in gross human rights abuses, for which he was sanctioned by the United States in 2007. Moreover, Mr. Auf has stood at Mr. Bashir's side as the regime has detained and tortured thousands of peaceful protesters, and as its security forces have killed over 60 people since December 2018. I am deeply skeptical that Mr. Bashir's cronies can spearhead true political and economic reform and accountability for past human rights abuses."

Co-Chairs Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, issued the following statement 11 April 2019 regarding the coup in Sudan: “We welcome, with guarded optimism, the news that Sudanese President and longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir has been ousted and call for calm to prevail. We are nonetheless concerned by the statement by General Awad ibn Auf, who is subject to U.S. sanctions for his reported role in Darfur atrocities, that a two-year military government will be formed, the constitution suspended, and a three-month state of emergency declared, as this falls far short of the demands of the Sudanese people to chart a new, inclusive and democratic future."