This paper examines the strategies employed by the regime of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to maintain power through the use of patronage networks and non-material forms of loyalty, namely Islamist ideology, ethnicity, and tribal identity. While identity-based loyalty is often employed effectively by most authoritarian regimes in ethnically divided societies, al-Bashir regime encountered significant difficulties in constructing a unified and clear identity that could serve as a shortcut for loyalty. The paper explores these challenges in relation to factors such as the ethnic composition of the country and the impact of Sufi religious sects that transcend ethnic and tribal boundaries. This paper contributes to existing scholarship on ethnic stacking in authoritarian regimes. It draws on fieldwork observations and interviews with various political actors and civil society activists and organizations in Sudan.