Sudan: ‘Extradition of wanted persons to ICC still requires approval’

Prime minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok announces major Cabinet reshuffle during a news conference on February 8, 2021 in Khartoum, Sudan [Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency]

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok said on Sunday that approval from the Council of Ministers and the Sovereignty Council is still needed to hand over wanted persons to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Khartoum’s decision to hand over former President Omar Al-Bashir and two of his aides, Ahmed Haroun and Abdel Rahim Hussein, last Wednesday. All three are wanted by the ICC regarding alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur in 2003, charges which they deny.

Hamdok made the announcement at a wide-ranging press conference in which he also addressed the issues of the agreement to open a Russian base in the east of Sudan, normalisation with Israel, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Defying the ICC, Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir flies out of South Africa – Cartoon [Cartoon Latuff/MiddleEastMonitor]

The Sudanese official confirmed that the agreement with Moscow was approved last November and has not been frozen. The hold-up in implementation is apparently due to the approval process which awaits the formation of the Legislative Council. The council was supposed to have been formed within three months of the transitional period which started in August 2019. No reason for the delay has been provided by the authorities in Khartoum. Approval of the normalisation agreement with Israel also awaits the council’s formation, Hamdok pointed out.

He announced the formation of a national mechanism to follow up on his June initiative to solve the crises gripping Sudan. His proposal includes reform of the military and security sectors, dismantling the remnants of the Bashir regime, fighting corruption, and forming the Legislative Council.

Some of the political groups in Sudan disagree about this step. According to Hamdok, though the mechanism has been put together following “long consultations with a broad spectrum of political, civilian and social bodies in order to achieve a broad national consensus.”

Major General Fadlallah Burma Nasser has been appointed head of the mechanism process with Mustafa Khojaly as his deputy. Practical proposals — which remain unspecified — will be shaped “within two months”, added the prime minister.

READ: US welcomes Sudan’s decision to hand ex-president Bashir to ICC

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