The mystery of the disappearance of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues, after he fled with his aides from the military hospital in the city of Omdurman, despite the passage of about a year since the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on the fifth of last April.
No one knows the whereabouts of the former president, nor the pillars of his regime who escaped from prison and are accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region, by the International Criminal Court, even when a delegation visited Sudan in the past few days, met with the Minister of Justice, Commissioner Howaida Awad al-Karim, without reaching any useful information about the whereabouts of al-Bashir and the others wanted.
The Saudi newspaper “Asharq Al-Awsat” quoted sources that it spoke with a source close to the decision-making centers in the Sudanese “Islamic Movement”, who asked not to be identified, explaining that Bashir was smuggled from the “Medical Weapon” hospital in Omdurman, to a safe place in northern Sudan.
The sources told the newspaper that the smuggling operation of Bashir with his Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, was carried out without the participation of the army, whose mission was limited to providing limited insurance for the operation, according to his words.
The source also suggested that the two men were taken directly to the northern city of Berber, where Islamist leaders reportedly held a secret senior meeting in the city, chaired by Bashir.
The operation took place more than a month ago, he said, not after army forces arrived in the “medical weapon” area, which has been besieged for several months.
The source close to the Islamic Movement also stated that the health and physical condition of former President Omar al-Bashir and his companion, Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hussein, deteriorated significantly during the months of detention.
The smuggling of the two men was planned months ago and carried out by “professional special forces affiliated with the Islamists’ military wing”, he said.
The source also talked about the implementation of a complex airdrop operation that preceded the smuggling of the two men, aimed at saving them, by delivering urgent medical and food supplies to them, after their health and living condition deteriorated to the point of needing alternative clothes to those that were smuggled on their bodies, which stimulated the acceleration of the smuggling process, likely that the operation was carried out by drone, especially since the helicopters will be an easy target for the Rapid Support Forces, if they try to approach the besieged area.
It is noteworthy that Bashir when the war broke out in Sudan last year, he was with three of his senior commanders, namely his deputy Bakri Hassan Saleh, his Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hussein, and a member of the “salvation” regime, Major General Ahmed Al-Tayeb Al-Khanjar, languishing in Alia Military Hospital, under the control of the army inside the “medical weapon” in the city of Omdurman, while the “Rapid Support” forces imposed a tight cordon on them from the siege.
Nearly two weeks after the war broke out, dozens of detained regime leaders escaped from Kober Central Prison, in the Khartoum North region, and any mention of the group in the besieged military hospital disappeared.
Since that date, there have been conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the former president and the pillars of his regime who escaped from prison.
More than 104 were killed as a result of an attack by the Rapid Support Forces on a village in Al-Jazira State