Haroun spoke in an audio recording last April about the circumstances of his and other leaders’ release from Kober Prison in Khartoum (Reuters - Archive)
The United States has offered a reward of up to $5 million to anyone who helps arrest the former head of the Sudanese National Congress Party, Ahmed Haroun, who was considered one of the pillars of the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir, and who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement - yesterday, Monday - "It is important to find Haroun and bring him to the International Criminal Court to answer the charges against him."
Miller spoke of a clear and direct link between impunity - for violations committed under the Bashir regime, including those that Haroun is accused of committing - and the violence taking place in Darfur today, referring to reports of the killing of thousands of civilians in the region since the outbreak of the current conflict in Sudan in mid-April. Last April.
Ahmed Haroun was Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs in the Omar al-Bashir regime and governor of South Kordofan State. He was arrested along with many leaders in the Bashir regime after the latter’s overthrow in April 2019.
About 10 days after the outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces last year, the former head of the National Congress Party, along with other detainees, left Kober Prison in Khartoum North.
Haroun then published an audio recording in which he said that he had left the prison with other former officials due to the fighting around the facility and the interruption of food and water supplies, and that they would provide protection for themselves, adding that he was "ready - in addition to other former officials - to appear before the judiciary when he fulfills his role."
Source: Al Jazeera + French