Sudan communist leader re-emerges after decade in hiding

KHARTOUM, April 8 (AFP) — Sudan’s communist party leader emerged from more than 10 years in hiding Friday after being told by the security services that he was no longer wanted and that in any case they had known his whereabouts all along.

Sudanese security chief Salah Abdullah (left) greets the leader of the Sudanese Communist party Ibrahim Nugud. (SMC).

Ibrahim Nugud put an end to his underground life after receiving a visit Thursday from the head of the national security and intelligence services Major General Salah Abdullah Mohammed and his deputy Mohammed al-Atta, the pro-government Sudanese Media Centre said.

Mohammed encouraged Nugud to resume public life, telling him there was “no need or justification for your hiding because you are not wanted by the security authorities,” the news agency said.

The intelligence chief added that Nugud’s hiding had been in vain as the security apparatus had been aware of his movements all along.

Nugud can now “move freely and undertake his duties and contributions to addressing the national issues,” the news agency quoted Mohammed as telling him.

The veteran communist leader was among scores of Sudanese politicians arrested following the 1989 coup which brought President Omar al-Beshir to power.

He was released in 1994 and promptly disappeared, with rumours placing him somewhere in the capital’s eastern suburbs.

The Sudanese communist party was once one of the most influential in the Arab world. President Jaafar Nimeiri used the communists to seize power in 1969, but later turned against them, jailing and executing several leaders.

The communists resurfaced during the brief democratic honeymoon that followed Nimeri’s overthrow in 1985 before being banned again with other parties after Beshir’s coup.