Sudan's army arrests Ahmed Haroun, wanted by the ICC

The Sudanese army has arrested Ahmed Haroun, a former senior Islamist official, according to officials of his party. He is a figure from the era of deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was forced from power in April 2019 after mass protests.

Haroun was chairman of the National Congress Party (NCP), the former ruling party of Al-Bashir. Officials of that party say the army has taken him into custody.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants Haroun in connection with alleged war crimes and other crimes in the Darfur region in the early 2000s.

Haroun has dismissed the accusations as politically motivated.

It is not his first arrest. He was also detained after Al-Bashir's fall in 2019 and held until 2023, when he escaped from prison as war broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war that let him escape in 2023 is still being fought between the army and the RSF. Haroun's arrest by the army puts a man wanted by the ICC back in custody in a country at war. The same army that now holds him was fighting the RSF when he got out.

It is uncertain whether the arrest will lead to his extradition to the ICC in The Hague.