A former Sudanese politician Ahmed Haroun, held in Kober prison in the capital Khartoum, facing charges by the International Criminal Court, says he and other former officials are no longer in jail, following reports of a break-out.
Reports emerged earlier this week of a prison break at Kober – where Ahmed Haroun was serving a sentence alongside Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s former president.
On Tuesday, Haroun confirmed in a statement aired on Sudan’s Tayba TV that he and other Bashir loyalists who served under him had left the jail – but said he would be ready to appear before the judiciary whenever it was functioning.
In an audio message circulating on social media, Haroun claimed the group had been aided in their escape by prison guards and the armed forces.
An army spokesman denied any army involvement, saying the military “does not have any supervision over prisons”. He said the military was coordinating with police to return inmates to prisons.
But plenty of Sudanese will believe this is just the latest example of Gen Burhan, leader of Sudan’s armed forces, trying to restore Bashir’s Islamist lieutenants to the forefront of Sudanese politics.
The ceasefire in Sudan has allowed several countries to evacuate their nationals from the country. Several evacuation flights carrying UK nationals from Sudan have landed in Cyprus, while a boat evacuating more than 1,600 people from dozens of countries has now arrived in Saudi Arabia.
Haroun was a key player in the Sudanese government’s brutal response to two long-running and still unresolved civil wars – in Darfur (from 2003) and South Kordofan (from 2011). He was indicted by the ICC in 2007 for his alleged role in the atrocities in Darfur – described as the first genocide of the 21st Century – when he was the country’s interior minister.
Haroun who was arrested in 2019, after veteran leader Bashir was ousted by the military amid mass protests, faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes, with charges including murder, rape, persecution and torture.
Mukesh Kapila, a former UN coordinator for Sudan, described Haroun as “extremely dangerous” and “unreliable”, adding he had “many followers who have been lurking for the last two decades”.
Thousands more are reported to have fled Sudan and the UN has warned that this is likely to continue. Lines of buses and other vehicles are continuing to leave Khartoum despite rocketing prices of fuel and bus tickets.
There is also concern for those who are left behind, with an estimated 24,000 pregnant women currently in Khartoum who are expected to give birth in the coming weeks.
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