Sudan denial of Brotherhood deportation claim

A leader of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) denied media claims on Saturday that senior Muslim Brotherhood officials have been told to leave the country.

“There are no Egyptian Islamists in Sudan,” insisted Abd El-Sakhi Abbas, a member of the NCP’s political section. “If there were, Egypt would name them and demand their extradition.”

He described the claim that Sudan has requested the Brotherhood members to leave the country as a “media brainchild”. Abbas stressed that there are no political or organisational links between the NCP and the movement in Egypt.

Earlier on Saturday, Sudanese and Arab media reported that Khartoum had asked the leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to leave the country within hours, otherwise Sudan would hand them over to Cairo. There was no official comment by the Sudanese government on the media reports.

Read: Sudan’s opposition leader calls on Sisi to release Brotherhood members

The Egyptian media accuse Khartoum of harbouring members of the Brotherhood, which Cairo has declared as a terrorist organisation since December 2013. The government in Khartoum, however, denied this. Furthermore, it accuses Egypt of supporting rebel movements in Sudan, which Cairo has also denied repeatedly.