Following intense clashes, a former politician from Sudan Ahmed Haroun who is wanted for suspected crimes against humanity has claimed that he and other ex-officials are no longer in jail.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has accused several people, including Ahmed Haroun, who is being imprisoned at the Kober jail in the capital Khartoum.
The combat between military factions seems to be mostly under control. However, there are concerns about either side’s dedication to a robust peace.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rival paramilitary organization, and the leaders of Sudan’s regular army engaged in a fierce power struggle that started the conflict, which started on April 15.
Reports of a jail breach in Kober, where Omar al-Bashir and Ahmed Haroun were both incarcerated, surfaced earlier this week.
In a statement on Tuesday, Haroun revealed that he and other Bashir loyalists who worked for him had left the jail. He also indicated that he would be prepared to testify in court whenever it was in session.
Haroun asserted that jail personnel and the military had helped the group escape in an audio clip making the rounds on social media.
“We made a decision to protect ourselves due to lack of security, water, food and treatment, as well as the death of many prisoners in Kober,” Haroun told al-Sudani, a daily newspaper with ties to Bashir.
According to the Sudanese army, Bashir, who is 79, was transferred there before hostilities started and is now being held by police at a military hospital.
After widespread protests in 2019, the military deposed the former president, who was already serving a prison term for corruption.
The International Criminal Court has charged him with organising a campaign of rape and mass murder in Sudan’s Darfur area, which he denies.
Ahmed Haroun, on the other hand, was instrumental in the ruthless response of the Sudanese government to two ongoing civil wars, Darfur (from 2003) and South Kordofan (since 2011).
His involvement in what has been called the first genocide of the twenty-first century, the horrors in Darfur, led to his indictment by the ICC in 2007.
As the nation’s interior minister in the early 2000s, Haroun is accused of committing 22 counts of war crimes and 20 counts of crimes against humanity. Murder, rape, persecution, and torture are among the accusations.
Haroun, who has also previously refuted the ICC allegations, was a key figure in Bashir’s inner circle for the majority of his 30 years in power before being detained in 2019 in the wake of the veteran leader’s overthrow.