Former Sudanese President Al Bashir is taken to hospital due to his delicate health

September 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Former Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was ousted in a coup in April 2019, has been transferred from a military facility where he was being held to a hospital in the city of Merowe in Sudan’s Northern state due to his delicate state of health.

Former Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, former Youth and Sports Minister Youssef Abdelfatá and former Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh have also been transferred, according to Al Bashir’s lawyer, Mohamed al Hassan al Amin, who spoke to the Sudan Tribune newspaper.

The decision was prompted by a request from the defence of the former officials and a military group called ‘Comrades in Arms’ following a series of reports indicating the lack of necessary treatment at the military hospital in Wadi Seidna, where they had been transferred in March with the aim of offering them greater security at a time of bloody fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

It is worth noting that Al Bashir suffers from several complications related to his 80 years of age, as do Abdelfatá and Hussein, while Saleh requires regular medical monitoring for his pacemaker.

In November 2022, Sudanese authorities ordered Al Bashir to be returned to prison after spending several months in hospital due to his poor health, although he was transferred back to hospital after the start of the war.

Al Bashir, who has been convicted of corruption, is the subject of two arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for alleged abuses committed under his command in the Darfur region.

Although Sudanese transitional authorities have expressed openness to handing over the former president – who is also on trial for the 1989 military coup that overthrew the elected government and brought him to power – to the international court, this has not yet materialised.