Sudan army arrests former ruling party leader

Sudan's military authorities apprehended Ahmed Haroun, former leader of the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir's National Congress party, on Sunday, according to a security official who spoke with AFP. Haroun, an Islamist figure, is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was initially detained in April 2019 following the ousting of Bashir, who fled the country after mass protests.

Haroun was released in 2023 during the initial conflict between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Recently, he gained notoriety by giving a four-hour interview to a podcast, where he expressed support for Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, and attributed his actions to external pressure. Burhan, a military careerist who ascended after Bashir's fall, has employed Islamist figures to bolster both political and military support.

The United States, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, has been urging Burhan to distance himself from Islamists. Prior to the war, Sudan was on the verge of transitioning to democracy, but Burhan ousted transitional government members in 2021, leading to a civil war between the army and RSF in April 2023. Haroun is charged with 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 war-crimes for his involvement in the Janjaweed militia's ethnic massacres in Darfur during the 2000s, a group that later transformed into the RSF. The United States has offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.