Sudanese army arrests former ruling party chief Ahmed Haroun after podcast appearance

November 8, 2026 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army has arrested Ahmed Haroun, the former head of the dissolved National Congress Party, just two days after his first public appearance since the fall of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019.

Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in Darfur.

Initial reports indicated he was detained in Khartoum State, but conflicting details have emerged regarding the exact location of his capture.

According to a social media post by prominent Islamist figure Ibrahim Alsidiq Ali, security forces apprehended Haroun on Sunday before he could leave the eastern city of Kassala for Atbara.

Ali said Haroun and a small delegation had been on a regional tour since Thursday, highlighting his active movements before his arrest.

The dissolved National Congress Party officially confirmed the arrest in a statement released on Sunday, condemning the move as an “arbitrary use of power.”

The party demanded Haroun’s immediate release, stating that he was detained without reason or justification.

“It is ironic that the head of a political party is arrested merely for voicing his opinion on what is happening in the national arena,” the NCP statement read.

The party criticized the state leadership for calling for national dialogue while simultaneously targeting active national figures, calling the arrest a “regrettable contradiction.”

The NCP further warned that yielding to external pressures would fragment national unity at a critical juncture as the country faces a “barbaric war.”

The arrest directly follows Haroun’s appearance on a program called “Sudan Podcast” with Sudanese journalist Rabie Siraj.

During the expansive four-hour interview, Haroun publicly discussed the 2019 collapse of the Bashir regime and the origins of the Rapid Support Forces.

He also detailed his nearly four-year detention in Kober prison and the circumstances surrounding his exit following the outbreak of the current war.

Haroun was initially detained in April 2019 when a popular uprising forced the military ouster of al-Bashir and his government.

He was held alongside the former president and other senior officials, including several who are also wanted by the ICC, in a Khartoum prison.

Throughout that period, the Sudanese military declined to hand them over to the international court in The Hague.

Al Hadath TV’s Sudan bureau chief, Lina Yacoub, reported that Haroun had been secretly managing the banned party from inside Sudan.

Unlike some former regime leaders who fled abroad to countries such as Turkey, Haroun remained in the country, frequently moving between states.

In his podcast appearance, Haroun firmly denied any direct organizational coordination between the National Congress Party and the Sudanese army.

He rejected widespread accusations that the Islamic Movement was responsible for igniting the ongoing conflict between the military and the Rapid Support Forces.

Furthermore, Haroun claimed that Sovereign Council leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had been heavily influenced by anti-Islamist propaganda.

Yacoub suggested that Haroun’s sudden public emergence likely prompted authorities to track him down.

However, she noted that the immediate political impact on the general public remains minimal, as most Sudanese citizens are currently preoccupied with surviving the country’s severe economic and humanitarian crisis.