Sudan’s toppled Bashir refusing food in prison

Sudan’s deposed President Omar Al-Bashir is suffering from “bad health” while in detention, social media reports said on Sunday.

“Al-Bashir suffered a minor stroke a few days ago,” activists said, adding that he was treated in a state hospital before returning to detention.

Other social media activists said Al-Bashir had suffered “trauma”, while some said that he was suffering a “difficult psychological situation, refusing food and medicine.”

Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) has neither commented nor confirmed the recent news.

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Sudanese Al-Intibaha recently quoted local sources as saying that Al-Bashir’s cell contained “a television, an air-conditioning unit, two beds and two seats,” stressing that he was the “only prisoner” to have such features in detention.

“The cell, where Al-Bashir is being held, was once the same detention of the former director of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service, Salah Abdallah Gosh,” the sources pointed out. Gosh was said to have been re-arrested after Al-Bashir was ousted.

On 17 April, Bashir was transferred to Kobar prison in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, after being held under house arrest following his ousting by the military days earlier.

Bashir was toppled on 11 April after four months of popular mass protests which were launched as a result of the increase in the price of basic goods. Demonstrators later called for Al-Bashir to step down.

Since then, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) – the revolt leading party – has been calling for the protests to continue until a civilian-led authority is elected.

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