KHARTOUM: Sudan’s former president Omar Al-Bashir is seeking permission to travel abroad for medical treatment, his lawyer told AFP on Friday, saying the jailed ex-ruler requires tests unavailable in war-ravaged Sudan.
Bashir, 82, was recently transferred from a hospital in the northern city of Merowe to Aliaa Specialist Military Hospital in Omdurman, across the Nile from the capital Khartoum, after suffering health complications, his lawyer Mohamed El-Hassan El-Amin said.
El-Amin added that Bashir’s condition “requires medical tests and cardiac imaging that are not currently available in Sudanese hospitals”.
“There is no specific country being sought for treatment. He could travel to any country able to provide the required care,” he told AFP.
In a statement on Wednesday, Bashir’s family said his health had deteriorated to the point that treatment abroad had become “urgent”, without disclosing details of his condition.
Bashir seized power in a 1989 military coup and ruled Sudan for three decades before being ousted in April 2019 following months of mass protests.
The International Criminal Court has accused him of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms, accusing Khartoum of marginalizing their region.
He remains wanted by the ICC. However, he has never been handed over and has been in Sudanese custody since his removal from power.
Shortly before war erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, authorities moved him from Khartoum’s Kober prison to military medical facilities, first in Khartoum and later in Merowe.
His request comes with Sudan’s health care system devastated by the war, which has damaged or forced the closure of most medical facilities.
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