Sudan’s army has confirmed it is holding the country’s deposed president Omar al-Bashir at a military hospital, after an attack by paramilitaries on the prison where he was detained raised questions about whether he had been freed.
The former dictator and at least five others, including the former defence minister Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, were moved to the hospital on the recommendation of medical staff in Kober prison before the current round of fighting broke out, the army said in a statement.
Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades, was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region in the 2000s.
The Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which together had removed Bashir from power during mass protests, are now battling one another across the capital.
The fighting reached Kober prison in Khartoum over the weekend, and police said on Wednesday that RSF forces broke into it and killed several prison officials. RSF forces released all prisoners held at the jail, according to police, who are aligned with the military.
Videos circulating online appeared to show a long line of prisoners leaving the facility with bags of belongings slung over their shoulders.
Four other prisons were also targeted by RSF forces, police said.
The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, denied the allegations of a prison break and claimed that the military had “forcibly evacuated” the facility as part of a plan to restore Bashir to power.
Former official Ahmed Haroun, who is also wanted by the ICC, said that he and other former officials of Bashir’s government had been allowed to leave Kober prison, in a statement aired on Sudan television. He said they left the prison for their own safety because of the fighting and a lack of food or water.
Haroun also said he was ready to appear in front of the judiciary whenever it was functioning and would take responsibility for his own protection.
Both the military and the RSF have sought to portray themselves as allies of the country’s pro-democracy movement, which is trying to restore its transition to civilian rule. But both joined forces to remove civilian leaders from power in a coup less than two years ago.
Kober prison held a number of activists detained after the coup. One of them who walked free, Ahmed al-Fatih, said he was willing to surrender at a police station but could not find any that were functioning amid the unrest, according to a statement released by his defence lawyers. Both activists said their lives were in danger at the prison as food and water ran low.
The ICC indicted Bashir, Hussein and Haroun on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.
The Darfur conflict erupted when rebels from an ethnic African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. Bashir launched a scorched-earth campaign that included air raids and attacks by notorious Janjaweed militias – tribal fighters who stormed into villages on horses and camels.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
