Sudanese Communist Party

Sudanese Communist Party
الحزب الشيوعي السوداني
General SecretaryMuhammad Mukhtar al-Khatib
Founded1946; 78 years ago (1946)
HeadquartersKhartoum
NewspaperAl-Midan
Youth wingSudanese Youth Union
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
National affiliation
International affiliationIMCWP
Colours  Red
Transitional Legislative Council
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Party flag

The Sudanese Communist Party (abbr. SCP; Arabic: الحزب الشيوعي السوداني, romanizedAl-Hizb al-Shuyui al-Sudani) is a communist party in Sudan. Founded in 1946, it was a major force in Sudanese politics in the early post-independence years, and was one of the two most influential communist parties in the Arab world, the other being the Iraqi Communist Party.

The party helped overthrow the military government of Ibrahim Abboud in the October 1964 Revolution and joined the subsequent transitional government. Anti-communists in the post-revolution government attempted to outlaw the party but were unsuccessful; the SCP contested two parliamentary elections in the 1960s.

In 1971, President Gaafar Nimeiry launched a wave of repression against the party after a failed coup implicated the involvement of a number of communist military officers. The party's most prominent figures – Abdel Khaliq Mahjub, Joseph Garang, Alshafi Ahmed Elshikh, Babkir Elnour and Hashem al Atta – were executed, and the party was officially banned. The party resurfaced after Nimeiry was overthrown in 1985.

The SCP opposed army colonel Omar al-Bashir's 1989 coup and his subsequent 25-year-long tenure as Sudan's head of state. The party is opposed to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's Transitional Military Council and the measures enacted after the 2019 coup.