Fears Mount Over the Return of “Public Interest Dismissals” in Sudan

By Al-Asmai Bashari

A decision issued by Sudan’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Welfare has triggered widespread opposition among labor unions and professional associations, amid growing fears that the country may be returning to the era of politically motivated dismissals and exclusion policies associated with the infamous “public interest” purges that followed the June 1989 coup.

Ministerial Decision No. 22 of 2026, issued by Minister of Human Resources and Social Welfare Moatasim Ahmed Salih, provides for the formation of a technical committee tasked with conducting a census of federal government employees and developing a plan to reduce the size of the public workforce.

The committee is chaired by the State Minister at the Ministry of Finance and includes six additional members from the Ministries of Finance and Human Resources, as well as agencies linked to the civil service, including the Graduate Employment Agency. The committee is tasked with identifying government employees below retirement age and submitting recommendations on how workforce reductions should be implemented.

Despite the potentially serious impact of the decision on thousands of public employees, the decree offered no detailed explanation or justification outlining the rationale behind the move, fueling criticism and raising questions about its true motives, particularly given Sudan’s current political and economic crisis.

The Trade Union Front Against the Census and Screening Committee described the decision as a form of “disguised political liquidation” carried out under an administrative pretext. The group warned that the move revives the same policies that Sudanese citizens revolted against and threatens the job security and livelihoods of civil servants.

In a public statement issued on May 15, 2026, the front argued that the decision does not reflect genuine administrative reform and fails to establish any standards of professional fairness. It also criticized the exclusion of unions from the process and the lack of institutional or labor oversight.

The statement added that the broad powers granted to the committee could allow employees to be categorized along political lines, echoing practices used during the years of dismissals under the “public interest” policy.

The front warned that the “old formula” is re-emerging in stages — beginning with employee registration and screening, eventually leading to “cutting off livelihoods and breaking opponents through economic pressure.” It said the decision appears to target employees who are not covered by early retirement schemes, under conditions that have neither been announced nor legally clarified.

The union coalition described the measure as “a clear betrayal of the revolution’s slogans” and a direct return to the policies of political empowerment and exclusion that the Sudanese revolution sought to dismantle. It announced its complete rejection of the decision and called on workers to form union committees within institutions, coordinate efforts among professional associations, and launch a broad campaign against the decree through legal, media, and peaceful public action.

In a separate statement, the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee also strongly rejected the ministerial decision, describing it as a direct continuation of the arbitrary dismissal and displacement policies practiced by the Islamist movement after the 1989 coup. According to the committee, those policies led to “the destruction of the civil service and the exclusion of thousands of employees under administrative and political pretexts in preparation for empowering regime loyalists.”

In a statement issued on May 16, 2026, the committee said the current decision comes under the authority established following the October 25, 2021 coup and amid the ongoing war that began in April 2023. It accused political forces allied with the authorities of participating in a renewed campaign of political empowerment and the redistribution of state institutions and positions of influence.

The Teachers’ Committee argued that forming a committee to reduce the public workforce in the absence of an elected civilian government and legitimate constitutional institutions demonstrates that the real objective is not administrative reform, but rather “opening the door to further political replacement and empowerment,” while also using public sector jobs as a tool to silence critics and marginalize opponents.

The committee added that the decision comes at a time when public employees are already enduring severe economic and humanitarian hardships caused by war, economic collapse, deteriorating wages, and worsening living conditions. Targeting jobs under such circumstances, it said, amounts to “a full-fledged social and political crime.”

The committee reaffirmed its commitment to defending workers’ right to job security and rejected what it described as attempts to use war and economic crisis as a cover for dismantling the civil service. It called for unity among workers, unions, and advocacy groups to confront what it termed “new waves of displacement and political empowerment.”

Meanwhile, labor law expert Osman Al-Tahir told Moatinoon that the inclusion of the Graduate Employment Agency in the committee raises serious questions about the actual objectives behind the decision. He said the move could indicate a government effort to create a legal framework that justifies the continued failure to absorb graduates into public institutions or delays their employment opportunities for extended periods — a policy he said has effectively been applied unofficially since the 2021 coup.

Al-Tahir added that any restructuring of the civil service should be based on publicly available studies, transparent professional standards, and legal guarantees protecting employees from arbitrary dismissal, in addition to involving unions and relevant stakeholders in shaping policies that affect workers’ futures.

The controversy surrounding the decision comes amid extremely fragile economic and security conditions in Sudan, where state institutions continue to suffer from the effects of war and financial collapse, while public employees struggle with low salaries, soaring inflation, and deepening job insecurity.

While opponents of the decree insist that it represents a return to political exclusion and partisan empowerment, the Ministry has yet to issue any detailed clarification regarding the criteria the committee will use or the legal safeguards that will protect employees from dismissal or exclusion.