Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir[a] (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served ashead of state of Sudan under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed ina coup d'état.[2] He was subsequently imprisoned, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges.[3][4]
Al-Bashir came to power in 1989 when, as abrigadier general in theSudanese Army, he led a group of officers supported byNational Islamic Front (NIF) ina military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime ministerSadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced PresidentAhmed al-Mirghani as head of state.[5] He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny forelectoral fraud.[6] In 1998, al-Bashir founded theNational Congress Party (NCP), which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019.[7] In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to beindicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians inDarfur.[8] On 11 February 2020, theGovernment of Sudan announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to theICC for trial.[9]
In October 2005, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to theSecond Sudanese Civil War,[10] leading to a referendum in the south, resulting in the separation of the south as the country ofSouth Sudan. In the Darfur region, he oversaw theWar in Darfur that resulted in death tolls of around 10,000 according to the Sudanese Government,[11] but most sources suggest between 200,000[12] and 400,000.[13][14][15] During his presidency, there were several violent struggles between theJanjaweed militia and rebel groups such as theSudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and theJustice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the form ofguerrilla warfare in the Darfur region. The civil war displaced[16] over2.5 million people out of a total population of 6.2 million in Darfur[17] and created a crisis inthe diplomatic relations betweenSudan andChad.[18] The rebels in Darfur lost the support fromLibya after the death ofMuammar Gaddafi and the collapse of his regime in 2011.[19][20][21]
From December 2018 onwards, al-Bashir facedlarge-scale protests which demanded his removal from power. On 11 April 2019, Bashir wasousted in a military coup d'état.[28][29] In September 2019, Bashir was replaced by theTransitionary Military Council which transferred executive power to a mixed civilian–militarySovereignty Council and a civilian prime minister,Abdalla Hamdok. Two months later, theForces of Freedom and Change alliance (which holds indirect political power during the39-month Sudanese transition to democracy), Hamdok, and Sovereignty Council memberSiddiq Tawer stated that Bashir would be eventually transferred to the ICC. He was convicted of corruption in December of that year and sentenced to two years in prison.[30][31][32] His trial regarding his role in the coup that brought him into power started on 21 July 2020.[33]
Al-Bashir was born on 1 January 1944 inHosh Bannaga,[34] a village on the outskirts ofShendi, just north of the capital,Khartoum, to a family that hails from theJa'alin tribe of northernSudan[b]. His mother was Hedieh Mohamed al-Zain, who died in 2019.[35][36][37] His father, Hassan ibn Ahmed, was a smalltime dairy farmer. He is the second among twelve brothers and sisters; his younger brother Othman was killed in South Sudan during his presidency.[38] His uncle,Al Taib Mustafa, was a journalist, politician, and noted opponent of South Sudan.[39] As a boy, he was nicknamed 'Omeira' – Little Omar.[40] He belongs to theBanu Bedaria, aBedouin tribe belonging to the largerJa'alin coalition,[41] aSudanese Arab tribe in middle north of Sudan (once a part of theKingdom of Egypt and Sudan). As a child, Al-Bashir lovedfootball. "Always in defense," a cousin of Omar's said. "That's why he went into the army." He received his primary education at theSudanese Military College, and his family later moved toKhartoum North where he completed his secondary education and became a supporter ofAl-Hilal. Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid. He also has asecond wife named Widad Babiker Omer, who had a number of children with her first husband Ibrahim Shamsaddin, a member of theRevolutionary Command Council for National Salvation who had died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.[42][40]
In 1975, al-Bashir was sent to theUnited Arab Emirates as the Sudanesemilitary attaché. When he returned home, al-Bashir was made a garrison commander. In 1981, al-Bashir returned to his paratroop background when he became the commander of an armored parachute brigade.[43]
The Sudanese Ministry of Defense website says that al-Bashir was in the Western Command from 1967 to 1969 and then the Airborne Forces from 1969 to 1987 until he was appointed commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade (independent) from 1987 to 30 June 1989.[44]
When he returned to Sudan as a colonel in theSudanese Army, al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable coalition government of Prime MinisterSadiq al-Mahdi in a bloodlessmilitary coup on30 June 1989.[5] Under al-Bashir's leadership, the new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level.[45] He then became chairman of theRevolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (a newly established body with legislative and executive powers for what was described as a transitional period), and assumed the posts ofchief of state, prime minister, chief of the armed forces, andMinister of Defence.[46] Subsequent to al-Bashir's promotion to the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, he allied himself withHassan al-Turabi, the leader of theNational Islamic Front, who, along with al-Bashir, began institutionalizingSharia law in the northern part of Sudan. Further on, al-Bashir issued purges and executions of people whom he alleged to be coup leaders in the upper ranks of the army, the banning of associations, political parties, and independent newspapers, as well as the imprisonment of leading political figures and journalists.[47]
On 16 October 1993, al-Bashir increased his power when he appointed himselfpresident of the country, after which he disbanded theRevolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and all other rival political parties. The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to al-Bashir completely.[48] In the early 1990s, al-Bashir's administration gave the green light to float a new currency calledSudanese dinar to replace the battered oldSudanese pound that had lost 90 percent of its worth during the turbulent 1980s; the currency was later changed back to pounds, but at a much higher rate. He was later elected president (with a five-year term) in the1996 national election, where he was the only candidate legally allowed to run for election.[49]
Omar al-Bashir was elected president (with a five-year term) in the 1996 national election[49] andHassan al-Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s".[50] In 1998, al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution, allowing limited political associations in opposition to al-Bashir'sNational Congress Party and his supporters to be formed. On12 December 1999, al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and oustedHassan al-Turabi, the speaker of parliament, in apalace coup.[51]
Al-Bashir was reelected president in the2010 Sudanese general election with 68% of the popular vote;[54] while Salva Kiir waselected President of Southern Sudan. These elections were agreed on earlier in the 2005 peace accord.[53] The election was marked by corruption, intimidation, and inequality. European observers, from theEuropean Union and theCarter Center, criticised the polls as "not meeting international standards". Candidates opposed to the SPLM said they were often detained or stopped from campaigning. Sudan Democracy First, an umbrella organisation in the north, put forward what it called strong evidence of rigging by al-Bashir's NCP. The Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections (Sunde) spoke of harassment and intimidation in the south, by the security forces of the SPLM.[6]
Al-Bashir had achieved economic growth in Sudan.[55] This was pushed further by the drilling and extraction of oil-[55] However, economic growth was not shared by all. Headline inflation in 2012 approached the threshold of chronic inflation (period average 36%), about 11% up from the budget projection of 2012 reflecting the combined effects of inflationary financing, the depreciation of the exchange rate, and the continued removal of subsidies, as well as high food and energy prices. This economic downturn prompted cost of living riots that erupted intoArab Spring-style anti-government demonstrations, raising discontent within theSudanese Workers' Trade Union Federation (SWTUF). They threatened to hold nationwide strikes in support of higher wages. The continued deterioration in the value of the Sudanese pound (SDG) posed grave downside risks to already soaring inflation. This, coupled with the economic slowdown, presented serious challenges to the implementation of the approved Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP).[56]
In the mid-1990s, a feud between al-Bashir and al-Turabi began, mostly due to al-Turabi's links toIslamic fundamentalist groups, as well as allowing them to operate out of Sudan, even personally invitingOsama bin Laden to the country.[57] TheUnited States had listed Sudan as astate sponsor of terrorism since 1993,[58] mostly due to al-Bashir and Hassan al-Turabi taking complete power in the early 1990s.[59]U.S. firms have been barred from doing business in Sudan since 1997.[60] In 1998, theAl-Shifa pharmaceutical factory inKhartoum was destroyed by a U.S.cruise missile strike because of its alleged production ofchemical weapons and links toal-Qaeda. However the U.S. State DepartmentBureau of Intelligence and Research wrote a report in 1999 questioning the attack on the factory, suggesting that the connection to bin Laden was not accurate; James Risen reported inThe New York Times: "Now, the analysts renewed their doubts and told Assistant Secretary of StatePhyllis Oakley that the C.I.A.'s evidence on which the attack was based was inadequate. Ms. Oakley asked them to double-check; perhaps there was some intelligence they had not yet seen. The answer came back quickly: There was no additional evidence. Ms. Oakley called a meeting of key aides and a consensus emerged: Contrary to what the Administration was saying, the case tying Al Shifa to Mr. bin Laden or to chemical weapons was weak."[61]
After being re-elected president of Sudan with a five-year-term in the1996 election with 75.7% of the popular vote,[62] al-Bashir issued the registration of legalized political parties in 1999 after being influenced by al-Turabi. Rival parties such as theLiberal Democrats of Sudan and the Alliance of the Peoples' Working Forces, headed by former Sudanese PresidentGaafar Nimeiry, were established and were allowed to run for election against al-Bashir'sNational Congress Party, however, they failed to achieve significant support, and al-Bashir was re-elected president, receiving 86.5% of the popular vote in the2000 presidential election. At thelegislative elections that same year, al-Bashir's National Congress Party won 355 out of 360 seats, with al-Turabi as its chairman. However, after al-Turabi introduced a bill to reduce the president's powers, prompting al-Bashir to dissolve parliament and declare astate of emergency, tensions began to rise between al-Bashir and al-Turabi. Reportedly, al-Turabi was suspended as chairman of National Congress Party, after he urged a boycott of the president's re-election campaign. Then, a splinter-faction led by al-Turabi, the Popular National Congress Party (PNC) signed an agreement withSudan People's Liberation Army, which led al-Bashir to believe that they were plotting to overthrow him and the government.[62]
Further on, al-Turabi's influence and that of his party's "'internationalist' and ideological wing" waned "in favor of the 'nationalist' or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrousinternational isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideological adventurism".[63] At the same time, Sudan worked to appease the United States and other international critics by expelling members ofEgyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave.[64]
On al-Bashir's orders, al-Turabi was imprisoned based on allegations of conspiracy in 2000 before being released in October 2003.[65] Al-Turabi was again imprisoned in March 2004[66] and released in July 2005, at the height of the peace agreement in the civil war.[67][68]
Al-Bashir and U.S. Deputy Secretary of StateRobert Zoellick, 2005
From the early 1990s, after al-Bashir assumed power, Sudan backedIraq in itsinvasion of Kuwait[69][70] and was accused of harbouring and providing sanctuary and assistance to Islamic terrorist groups.Carlos the Jackal,Osama bin Laden,Abu Nidal and others labeled "terrorist leaders" by the United States and its allies resided in Khartoum. Sudan's role in thePopular Arab and Islamic Congress (PAIC), spearheaded byHassan al-Turabi, represented a matter of great concern to the security of American officials and dependents in Khartoum, resulting in several reductions and evacuations of American personnel from Khartoum in the early to mid 1990s.[71]
Sudan's Islamist links with international terrorist organizations represented a special matter of concern for the American government, leading to Sudan's 1993 designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and a suspension of U.S. Embassy operations in Khartoum in 1996. In late 1994, in an initial effort to reverse his nation's growing image throughout the world as a country harboring terrorists, Bashir secretly cooperated with French special forces to orchestrate the capture and arrest on Sudanese soil ofCarlos the Jackal.[72]
Sudan's offer of and request for counter-terrorism assistance, April 1997
In early 1996, al-Bashir authorised his Defence Minister at the time, El Fatih Erwa, to make a series of secret trips to the United States[73] to hold talks with American officials, including officers of theCIA andUnited States Department of State about American sanctions policy against Sudan and what measures might be taken by the Bashir regime to remove the sanctions. Erwa was presented with a series of demands from the United States, including demands for information aboutOsama bin Laden and other radical Islamic groups. The US demand list also encouraged Bashir's regime to move away from activities, such as hosting the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress, that impinged on Sudanese efforts to reconcile with the West. Sudan's Mukhabarat (central intelligence agency) spent half a decade amassing intelligence data on bin Laden and a wide array of Islamists through their periodic annual visits for the PAIC conferences.[74] In May 1996, after the series of Erwa secret meetings on US soil, theClinton Administration demanded that Sudan expel Bin Laden. Bashir complied.[75]
Controversy erupted about whether Sudan had offered to extradite bin Laden in return for rescinding American sanctions that were interfering with Sudan's plans to develop oil fields in southern areas of the country. American officials insisted the secret meetings were agreed only to pressure Sudan into compliance on a range of anti-terrorism issues. The Sudanese insisted that an offer to extradite bin Laden had been made in a secret one-on-one meeting at aFairfax hotel between Erwa and the thenCIA Africa Bureau chief on condition thatWashington end sanctions against Bashir's regime. AmbassadorTimothy M. Carney attended one of the Fairfax hotel meetings. In a joint opinion piece in the Washington Post Outlook Section in 2003, Carney and Ijaz argued that in fact the Sudanese had offered to extradite bin Laden to a third country in exchange for sanctions relief.[76]
In August 1996, American hedge-fund managerMansoor Ijaz travelled to Sudan and met with senior officials including al-Turabi and al-Bashir. Ijaz asked Sudanese officials to share intelligence data with US officials on bin Laden and other Islamists who had traveled to and from Sudan during the previous five years. Ijaz conveyed his findings to US officials upon his return, includingSandy Berger, then Clinton's deputy national security adviser, and argued for the US to constructively engage the Sudanese and other Islamic countries.[77] In April 1997, Ijaz persuaded al-Bashir to make an unconditional offer of counterterrorism assistance in the form of a signed presidential letter that Ijaz delivered to CongressmanLee H. Hamilton by hand.[78]
In late September 1997, months after the Sudanese overture (made by al-Bashir in the letter to Hamilton), the U.S. State Department, under Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright's directive, first announced it would return American diplomats to Khartoum to pursue counterterrorism data in theMukhabarat's possession. Within days, the U.S. reversed that decision[79] and imposed harsher and more comprehensive economic, trade, and financial sanctions against Sudan, which went into effect in October 1997.[80] In August 1998, in the wake of theEast Africa embassy bombings, the U.S. launchedcruise missile strikes against Khartoum.[81] U.S. Ambassador to Sudan, Tim Carney, departed post in February 1996[82] and no new ambassador was designated until December 2019, when U.S. presidentDonald Trump's administration reached an agreement with the new Sudanese government to exchange ambassadors.[83]
Al-Bashir announced in August 2015 that he would travel toNew York in September to speak at theUnited Nations. It was unclear to date if al-Bashir would have been allowed to travel, due to previous sanctions.[84]
When al-Bashir took power theSecond Sudanese Civil War had been ongoing for nine years. The war soon effectively developed into a conflict between theSudan People's Liberation Army and al-Bashir's government. The war resulted in millions of southerners being displaced, starved, and deprived of education and health care, with almost two million casualties.[85] Because of these actions, various international sanctions were placed on Sudan. International pressure intensified in 2001, however, and leaders from the United Nations called for al-Bashir to make efforts to end the conflict and allow humanitarian and international workers to deliver relief to the southern regions of Sudan.[86] Much progress was made throughout 2003. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of theNairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement 9 January 2005, grantingSouthern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed bya referendum on independence. It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil deposits equally, but also left both the north's and south's armies in place.John Garang, the south's peace agreement appointed co-vice president, died in a helicopter crash on1 August 2005, three weeks after being sworn in.[87] This resulted in riots, but the peace was eventually re-established[88] and allowed the southerners to vote in a referendum of independence at the end of the six-year period.[89] On 9 July 2011, following a referendum, the region of Southern Sudan split off from Sudan to formSouth Sudan.[90]
Series ofdroughts in Darfur led to disputes over land between non-Arab sedentary farmers and ArabJanjaweed nomads (see illustrative photo).
Since 1968, Sudanese politicians had attempted to create separate factions of "Africans" and "Arabs" in the western area ofDarfur, a difficult task as the population were substantially intermarried and could not be distinguished by skin tone. This internal political instability was aggravated by cross-border conflicts withChad andLibya[91] and the 1984–1985 Darfur famine.[92] In 2003, theJustice and Equality Movement and theSudanese Liberation Army –accusing the government of neglecting Darfur and oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs – began an armed insurgency.[93]
Estimates vary of the number of deaths resulting from attacks on the non-Arab/Arabized population by theJanjaweed militia: the Sudanese government claim that up to 10,000 have been killed in this conflict; the United Nations reported that about 300,000 had died as of 2010,[12] and other reports place the figures at between 200,000 and 400,000.[11] During an interview withDavid Frost for theAl Jazeera English programmeFrost Over The World in June 2008, al-Bashir insisted that no more than 10,000 had died in Darfur.[94]
The Sudanese government had been accused of suppressing information by jailing and killing witnesses since 2004, and tampering with evidence, such as covering upmass graves.[95][96][97] The Sudanese government has also arrested and harassed journalists, thus limiting the extent of press coverage of the situation in Darfur.[98][99][100][101] While theUnited States government has described the conflict asgenocide,[102] the UN has not recognized the conflict as such.[103] (seeList of declarations of genocide in Darfur)
TheUnited States Government stated in September 2004 "thatgenocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring".[104] On 29 June 2004, U.S. Secretary of StateColin Powell met with al-Bashir in Sudan and urged him to make peace with the rebels, end the crisis, and lift restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Darfur.[105]Kofi Annan met with al-Bashir three days later and demanded that he disarm the Janjaweed.[106]
After fighting stopped in July and August, on31 August 2006, theUnited Nations Security Council approvedResolution 1706 which called for a new UNpeacekeeping force consisting of 17,300 military personnel and 3,300 civilians[107] and named theUnited Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).[108] It was intended to have supplanted or supplemented a 7,000-troopAfrican UnionMission in Sudan peacekeeping force.[109] Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as "foreign invaders".[110] A day after rejecting the UN forces into Sudan, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region.[111] In March 2007, theUnited Nations Human Rights Council accused Sudan's government of taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur[112] and urged the international community to take urgent action to protect people in Darfur.[113] A high-level technical consultation was held inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 11–12 June 2007, pursuant to the4 June 2007 letters of the secretary-general and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, which were addressed to al-Bashir.[114] The technical consultations were attended by delegations from the Government of Sudan, theAfrican Union, and the United Nations.[115][116]
Darfur refugee camp in Chad, 2005
In 2009, GeneralMartin Luther Agwai, head of the UNAMID, said the war was over in the region, although low-level disputes remained. "Banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that," he said.[117] This perspective is contradicted by reports which indicate that violence continues in Darfur while peace efforts have been stalled repeatedly. Violence between Sudan's military and rebel fighters has besetSouth Kordofan andBlue Nile states since disputed state elections in May 2011, an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has prompted international condemnation and U.S. congressional hearings. In 2012, tensions between Sudan and South Sudan reached a boiling point when the Sudanese military bombed territory in South Sudan, leading to hostilities over the disputed Heglig (or Panthou) oil fields located along the Sudan-South Sudan border.[118] Omar al-Bashir sought the assistance of numerous non-western countries after the West, led by America, imposed sanctions against him, he said: "From the first day, our policy was clear: To look eastward, towardChina,Malaysia,India,Pakistan,Indonesia, and evenKorea andJapan, even if the Western influence upon some [of these] countries is strong. We believe that the Chinese expansion was natural because it filled the space left by Western governments, the United States, and international funding agencies. The success of the Sudanese experiment in dealing with China without political conditions or pressures encouraged other African countries to look toward China."[119]
Chadian PresidentIdriss Déby visited Khartoum in 2010 and Chad kicked out the Darfuri rebels it had previously supported. Both Sudanese and Chadian sides together established a joint military border patrol.[120]
On 26 October 2011, al-Bashir announced that he had supported the rebels that had oustedMuammar Gaddafi. It was a reciprocal move for Gaddafi supporting the rebels in Darfur, including the Justice and Equality Movement. "Our God, high and exalted, from above the seven skies, gave us the opportunity to reciprocate the visit," he said. "The forces which enteredTripoli, part of their arms and capabilities, were 100% Sudanese," he told the crowd. His speech was well received by a large crowd in the eastern Sudanese town of Kassala.[121]
Al-Bashir in his speech said that his government's priority was to end the armed rebellion and tribal conflicts in order to save blood and direct the energies of young people towards building Sudan instead of "killing and destruction". He called upon youth of the rebel groups to lay down arms and join efforts to build the country.[122] Al Bashir sees himself as a man wronged and misunderstood. He takes full responsibility for the conflict in Darfur, he says, but says that his government did not start the fighting and has done everything in its power to end it.[25]
Al Bashir had signed two peace agreements for Darfur:
The 2011 Darfur Peace Agreement, also known as the "Doha Agreement", was signed in July 2011 between the government of Sudan and theLiberation and Justice Movement. This agreement established a compensation fund for victims of the Darfur conflict, allowed the president of Sudan to appoint a vice-president from Darfur, and established a newDarfur Regional Authority to oversee the region until areferendum can determine its permanent status within the Republic of Sudan.[126]
The agreement also provided forpower sharing at the national level: movements that sign the agreement will be entitled to nominate two ministers and two four ministers of state at the federal level and will be able to nominate 20 members to the national legislature. The movements will be entitled to nominate two state governors in the Darfur region.[127]
An arrest warrant for al-Bashir was issued on4 March 2009 by a pre-trial chamber composed of judgesAkua Kuenyehia ofGhana,Anita Ušacka ofLatvia, andSylvia Steiner ofBrazil[130] indicting him on five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape) and two counts of war crimes (pillaging and intentionally directing attacks against civilians).[23][131] The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for genocide.[24][132] However, Ušacka wrote adissenting opinion arguing that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir has committed the crime of genocide".[132]
Sudan is not a state party to theRome Statute establishing the ICC, and thus claims that it does not have to execute the warrant. However,United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005) referred Sudan to the ICC, which gives the courtjurisdiction over international crimes committed in Sudan and obligates Government of Sudan to cooperate with the ICC,[133] and therefore the court, Amnesty International and others insist that Sudan must comply with the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court.[24][134]Amnesty International stated that al-Bashir must turn himself in to face the charges, and that the Sudanese authorities must detain him and turn him over to the ICC if he refuses.[135]
Al-Bashir was the first sittinghead of state ever indicted by the ICC.[24] However, theArab League[136] and theAfrican Union condemned the warrant. Following the indictment Al-Bashir visited China,[137]Djibouti,[138][139] Egypt, Ethiopia,India,[140] Libya,[141][142]Nigeria,[143] Qatar, Saudi Arabia, theUnited Arab Emirates, and several other countries, all of which refused to have him arrested. ICC member state Chad also refused to arrest al-Bashir during a state visit in July 2010.[144] He was also invited to attend conferences inDenmark[145] andTurkey.[146] On 28 November 2011, following a visit toKenya, Kenya's High Court Judge Nicholas Ombija ordered the Minister of Internal Security to arrest al-Bashir, "should he set foot in Kenya in the future".[147] In June 2015, while inSouth Africa for anAfrican Union meeting, al-Bashir was prohibited from leaving that country while a court decided whether he should be handed over to the ICC for war crimes.[148] He, nevertheless, was allowed to leave South Africa soon afterward.[149] Luis Moreno Ocampo and Amnesty International claimed that al-Bashir's plane could be intercepted in international airspace. Sudan announced that the presidential plane would always be escorted by fighter jets of theSudanese Air Force to prevent his arrest. In March 2009, just before al-Bashir's visit to Qatar, the Sudanese government was reportedly considering sending fighter jets to accompany his plane to Qatar, possibly in response to France expressing support for an operation to intercept his plane in international airspace, as France has military bases in Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates.[150]
Al-Bashir in Beijing, China, 3 November 2006
The charges against al-Bashir have been criticized and ignored in Sudan and abroad, particularly in Africa and the Muslim world. Former president of theAfrican UnionMuammar al-Gaddafi characterized the indictment as a form of terrorism. He also believed that the warrant is an attempt "by (the west) to recolonize their former colonies".[151] Egypt said, it was "greatly disturbed" by the ICC decision and called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to defer the arrest warrant.[152] TheArab League Secretary-GeneralAmr Moussa expressed that the organization emphasizes its solidarity with Sudan and condemned the warrant for "undermining the unity and stability of Sudan".[153] TheOrganisation of Islamic Cooperation denounced the warrant as unwarranted and totally unacceptable. It argued that the warrant demonstrated "selectivity and double standard applied in relation to issues of war crimes".[154]
Al-Bashir has rejected the charges, saying "Whoever has visited Darfur, met officials and discovered their ethnicities and tribes ... will know that all of these things are lies."[155] He described the charges as "not worth the ink they are written in".[156] The warrant was to be delivered to the Sudanese government, which stated that they would not carry it out.[24][133][134]
The Sudanese government retaliated against the warrant by expelling a number of internationalaid agencies, includingOxfam andMercy Corps.[157] President Bashir described the aid agencies as thieves who take "99 percent of the budget for humanitarian work themselves, giving the people of Darfur 1 percent" and as spies in the work of foreign regimes. Bashir promised that national agencies will provide aid to Darfur.[158]
Al-Bashir inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31 January 2009
Al-Bashir was one of the candidates in the2010 Sudanese presidential election, the first democratic election with multiple political parties participating since the1986 election.[159][160] It had been suggested that by holding and winning a legitimate presidential elections in 2010, al-Bashir had hoped to evade the ICC's warrant for his arrest.[161] On 26 April, he was officially declared the winner after Sudan's election commission announced he had received 68% of the votes cast in the election.[162] However,The New York Times noted the voting was "marred by boycotts and reports of intimidation and widespread fraud".[163]
In August 2013, Bashir's plane was blocked from entering Saudi Arabian airspace when Bashir was attempting to attend the inauguration of Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani,[164] whose country is the main supplier of weapons to Sudan.[165]
A second arrest warrant for al-Bashir was issued on 12 July 2010. The ICC issued an additional warrant adding 3 counts of genocide for theethnic cleansing of the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes.[139] The new warrant included the court's conclusion that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that al-Bashir acted with specificintent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit andZaghawa ethnic groups in the Darfur region.[166] The charges against al-Bashir, in three separate counts, include "genocide by killing", "genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm" and "genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction".[167] The new warrant acted as a supplement to the first, whereby the charges initially brought against al-Bashir all remained in place, but now included the crime of genocide which was initially ruled out, pending appeal.[168]
Al-Bashir withIran's Supreme LeaderAli Khamenei, Tehran, 31 August 2012Al-Bashir and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin during a meeting in Sochi on 27 November 2017
Al-Bashir said that Sudan is not a party to the ICC treaty and could not be expected to abide by its provisions just like the United States, China and Russia. He said "It is a political issue and double standards, because there are obvious crimes like Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, but [they] did not find their way to the International Criminal Court". He added "The same decision in which [the] Darfur case [was] being transferred to the court stated that the American soldiers [in Iraq and Afghanistan] would not be questioned by the court, so it is not about justice, it is a political issue." Al Bashir accused Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC's chief prosecutor since 2003 of repeatedly lying in order to damage his reputation and standing. Al-Bashir said "The behavior of the prosecutor of the court, it was clearly the behavior of a political activist not a legal professional. He is now working on a big campaign to add more lies." He added, "The biggest lie was when he said I have $9bn in one of the British banks, and thank God, the British bank and the [British] finance minister … denied these allegations." He also said: "The clearest cases in the world such as Palestine and Iraq and Afghanistan, clear crimes to the whole humanity – all were not transferred to the court."[25]
Russia and China echoed Bashir's argument that the ICC was being used as a political tool and argued for Al-Bashir's immunity as a head of state and continued supplying Sudan with weapons during the trial.[169] As permanent members of the UNSC, they opposed the ICC's actions against Al-Bashir and worked within the UNSC to block resolutions that would force Al-Bashir to comply with the court's rulings.[170] China had significant economic and strategic interests in Sudan, including oil investments, and maintained strong diplomatic ties with Al-Bashir's government. They hosted him in 2015 despite the arrest warrants against him, and Russia as well in 2017, undermining the legitimacy of the court's ruling.[171]
In October 2013, several members of the African Union expressed anger at the ICC, calling it "racist" for failing to file charges against Western leaders or Western allies while prosecuting only African suspects so far. The African Union demanded that the ICC protect African heads of state from prosecution.[172]
Al-Bashir meeting with Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, New Delhi, India, 30 October 2015
In 2015, Sudan participated in theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against theShiaHouthis and forces loyal to former presidentAli Abdullah Saleh,[173] who was deposed during the 2011–2012Yemeni revolution.[174]Reuters reported that "The war in Yemen has given Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a skilled political operator who has ruled Sudan for a quarter-century, an opportunity to show wealthy Sunni powers that he can be an asset against Iranian influence – if the price is right."[175]
During the Second Sudanese Civil War, Al-Bashir allegedly looted Sudan of much of its wealth. According to leaked US diplomatic cables, $9 billion of his siphoned wealth was stored in banks in London. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, stated that some of the funds were being held in the partially nationalized Lloyds Banking Group. He also reportedly told US officials it was necessary to go public with the scale of al-Bashir's extortion to turn public opinion against him.[176] One US official stated "Ocampo suggested if Bashir's stash of money were disclosed (he put the figure at $9bn), it would change Sudanese public opinion from him being a 'crusader' to that of a thief." "Ocampo reported Lloyd's bank in London may be holding or knowledgeable of the whereabouts of his money," the report says. "Ocampo suggested exposing Bashir had illegal accounts would be enough to turn the Sudanese against him."[177] Aleaked diplomatic cable allegedly reveals that the Sudanese president had embezzled US$9 billion in state funds, butLloyds Bank "insisted it was not aware of any link with Bashir," while a Sudanese government spokesman called the claim "ludicrous" and attacked the motives of the prosecutor.[178] In an interview with the Guardian, al-Bashir said, referring to ICC Prosecutor Ocampo, "The biggest lie was when he said I have $9 billion in one of the British banks, and thank God, the British bank and the [British] finance minister ... denied these allegations."[25] The arrest warrant actively increased public support for al-Bashir in Sudan.[179]
Part of the$8.9 billion fine theBNP Paribas paid for sanctions violations was related to their trade with Sudan. While smaller fines have also been given to other banks,[180] US Justice Department officials said that they found the BNP particularly uncooperative, calling it Sudan'sde facto central bank.[181]
In 2012, al-Bashir proposed setting up a continent-wide space agency in Africa. In a statement he said, "I'm calling for the biggest project, an African space agency. Africa must have its space agency... [It] will liberate Africa from technological domination".[182] This followed previous calls in 2010 by the African Union (AU) to conduct a feasibility study that would draw up a "road map for the creation of the African space agency". African astronomy received a massive boost when South Africa was awarded the majority shares of theSquare Kilometre Array, the world's biggest radio telescope. It will see dishes erected in nine African countries. But skeptics have questioned whether a continental body in the style ofNASA or theEuropean Space Agency would be affordable.[182]
On 11 April 2019, al-Bashir was removed from his post by theSudanese Armed Forces[183] after manymonths of protests and civil uprisings.[184] He was immediately placed under house arrest pending the formation of a transitional council.[185] At the time of his arrest al-Bashir had been the longest-serving leader of Sudan since the country gained independence in 1956, and was the longest-ruling president of theArab League. The army also ordered the arrest of all ministers in al-Bashir's cabinet, dissolved theNational Legislature and formed aTransitional Military Council, led by his own First Vice President and Defense Minister, Lieutenant GeneralAhmed Awad Ibn Auf.[183]
On 17 April 2019, al-Bashir was moved from house arrest to Khartoum'sKobar Prison.[186] On 13 May 2019, prosecutors charged al-Bashir with "inciting and participating in" the killing of protesters.[187] A trial for corruption (after $130 million was found in his home)[188] andmoney laundering against al-Bashir started during the following months.[30] On 14 December 2019, he was convicted for money laundering and corruption. He was sentenced to two years in prison.[189]
On 21 July 2020, his trial regarding the coup that brought him to power started. About 20 military personnel were indicted for their roles in the coup.[33] On 20 December 2022, al-Bashir said that he bears full responsibility for the events that took place in the country on June 30, 1989.[190] The trial is expected to continue for several more months and if convicted, Bashir could face a death sentence.[191]
On 5 November 2019, theForces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC), which held indirect political power during the39-month Sudanese transition to democracy, stated that it had reached a consensus decision in favor of transferring al-Bashir to the ICC after the completion of his corruption and money laundering trial.[30] In the following days, Sudanese transition period Prime MinisterAbdalla Hamdok andSovereignty Council memberSiddiq Tawer stated that al-Bashir would be transferred to theICC.[31][32] On 11 February 2020, Sudan's ruling military council agreed to hand over the ousted al-Bashir to the ICC inThe Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur.[192] In October 2020, ICC Chief ProsecutorFatou Bensouda and a delegation arrived in Sudan to discuss with the government about Bashir's indictment. In a deal with Darfurian rebels, the government agreed to set up a special war crimes court that would include Bashir.[193]
On 26 April 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces stated that al-Bashir,Bakri Hassan Saleh,Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein and two other former officials were taken from Kobar Prison to Alia Military Hospital inOmdurman due to theconflict that erupted earlier that month.[194][195] Al-Bashir and other officials were later taken to a hospital atWadi Seidna Air Base, where they remained until their transfer to a facility inMerowe in September 2024.[196] Al-Bashir is reported to be suffering from heart problems.[197]
^Abdelaziz, Khalid; Abdelaty, Ali; El Sherif, Mohamed; Saba, Yousef; Nichols, Michelle; Aboudi, Sami; Lewis, Aidan (11 April 2019)."Sudan's Bashir Forced to Step Down".Reuters.Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved11 April 2019.
^"البشير يحضر مراسم دفن والدته.. وجدل على 'تويتر'" [Al-Bashir attends his mother's burial ceremony ... and controversy on Twitter].السودان نيوز 365. 30 July 2019.Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved25 August 2019.
^Fanack (12 February 2020)."الرئيس عمر البشير" [President Omar al-Bashir].وقائع الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا (in Arabic).Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved16 March 2023.
^"وفاة خال البشير... أبرز خصوم جنوب السودان" [The death of Al-Bashir's uncle... the most prominent opponent of South Sudan].Asharq Al-Awsat (in Arabic). 16 May 2021.Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved6 December 2021.
^Malik, Mohamed; Malik, Malik (18 March 2015). "The Efficacy of United States Sanctions on the Republic of Sudan".Journal of Georgetown University-Qatar Middle Eastern Studies Student Association.2015 (1): 3.doi:10.5339/messa.2015.7.ISSN2311-8148.
^Morrison, J. Stephen; de Waal, Alex (1 March 2005). "Can Sudan Escape its Intractability?". In Crocker, Chester A.; Hampson, Fen Osler; Aall, Pamela (eds.).Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict. Washington, DC:United States Institute of Peace. p. 162.ISBN978-1929223602.
^"Country of Origin Report: Sudan"(PDF). Research, Development and Statistics (RDS), Home Office, UK. 27 October 2006.Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved18 January 2009.
^Nate Raymond (1 May 2015)."BNP Paribas sentenced in $8.9 billion accord over sanctions violations".Reuters.Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved8 November 2019.Authorities said that BNP essentially functioned as the "central bank for the government of Sudan," concealing its tracks and failing to cooperate when first contacted by law enforcement
Italics and (*) indicate that a person was convicted by the ICC and that the conviction remains valid; a name in (parentheses) indicates that charges were dropped or a conviction was overturned; † indicates a person confirmed by the ICC as deceased before or during trial; (x) after a name indicates that the case was closed by the ICC because of a national-level trial of the accused
.jpg)
_02.jpg)
