Sudan Detains ICC Fugitive Ahmed Haroun in Omdurman, Lawyers Say No Reason Given

Sudanese authorities have detained Ahmed Haroun, a former senior official wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes in Darfur, in Omdurman, his lawyers said. The Ahmed Haroun arrest took place on Sunday, Nov. 8, according to Africanews and the Dutch broadcaster NOS. His legal team said no reason was given for the detention and that they did not know where he was being held.

The lawyers linked the move to remarks Haroun made on a podcast, in which he said his National Congress Party (NCP), the party of former president Omar al-Bashir, and the army were united against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The NCP has demanded his release. Human rights groups have called for him to be handed to the ICC. At the time of NOS’s report, neither the Sudanese army nor the court had commented.

Who is Ahmed Haroun

Haroun was Sudan’s minister of state for the interior when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him on April 27, 2007, in case ICC-02/05-01/07. The court charges him with 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes over attacks on civilians in Darfur in 2003 and 2004, including murder, persecution, forcible transfer and rape, according to the ICC’s case information sheet. He later served as governor of South Kordofan and became a leading figure in the NCP.

He was arrested in 2019 after Bashir was removed from power, but he was never surrendered to The Hague. NOS reported that he left prison when war broke out between the army and the RSF in 2023, and he had since been at large inside Sudan. Under ICC rules, the case remains at the pre-trial stage until he is transferred to the court, because the ICC does not try suspects in absentia.

Why the timing matters

The detention comes as the army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, fights the RSF for control of the country. Islamist networks tied to the NCP have backed the army, and critics of the military have long accused it of relying on Bashir-era figures. Haroun’s public claim that the NCP and the army stand together risked embarrassing army leaders, who have tried to present themselves to foreign governments as separate from the old ruling party.

That context is why rights groups are watching whether the detention leads anywhere beyond domestic politics. Sudan is not a member of the ICC, but the court’s jurisdiction over Darfur comes from a 2005 referral by the U.N. Security Council. The ICC has already convicted one Darfur suspect, former Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, and has outstanding warrants for Bashir and others.

The wider war

Darfur is again at the center of the conflict. The RSF captured El Fasher, the last army-held city in the region, last year, and the anniversary was marked by renewed drone strikes on power infrastructure, as we reported in our story on El Fasher one year after its fall. Sudan’s neighbors are also being pulled in, including the tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions covered in our report on Ethiopia expelling Sudanese officials.

Victims’ groups from Darfur have argued for years that Haroun, Bashir and former defense minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein should face trial in The Hague. Each previous government in Khartoum has declined to transfer them.

What to watch

The key question is whether the army treats this as a disciplinary step against a political ally who spoke out of turn, or as a first move toward cooperation with the ICC. Signs to watch include a formal charge or explanation from authorities, any request from the ICC prosecutor’s office, and how the NCP responds if Haroun remains in custody.

Sources

• Africanews: Soudan, l'armée arrête Ahmed Haroun, recherché par la CPI
• NOS: Van oorlogsmisdaden verdachte politicus Ahmed Haroun opgepakt in Sudan
• International Criminal Court: The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Muhammad Harun (case page)
• OkayAfrica: Today in Africa, Nov. 9, 2026