The guests of the "Beyond the News" program did not agree in their analysis of the developments in the Sudanese scene about their perception of the party behind the release of a group of symbols of the isolated Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir's regime from prison.
In light of the eruption of the security situation in the country, the Sudanese were surprised by the news of the storming of prisons and the release of their inmates, including symbols of the former regime. The two sides exchanged accusations of responsibility for this. While the army statement held the Rapid Support Forces responsible for storming prisons and releasing their inmates indiscriminately in an attempt to create chaos in the country, a statement from the Rapid Support Forces considered the release of leaders in the Omar al-Bashir regime from prisons as an "exposed misleading practice" aimed at restoring the previous regime.
Commenting on the release of a group of leaders of the former ruling National Congress Party in Sudan from prison, the former Sudanese Minister of Information and Communications, Hassan Ismail, accused the Rapid Support Forces of being behind the operation, under the pretext that it seeks to involve them in the current conflict between it and the Sudanese army.
Ismail revealed – in his interview with the episode (4/26/2023) of the "Beyond the News" program – that the political detainees had addressed the Sudanese state in order to provide a safe place for them, because Kober Prison was no longer like that, then guards came to them and asked them to secure themselves. by themselves. He linked their exit to the chaos that prevailed in Khartoum due to fighting between the army forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
He said that the Islamists are not benefiting from the current conflict, and that those who want to remove them from the scene and involve them in the conflict are the ones who are trying to compensate for the losses they incurred in front of the armed forces, in reference to the Rapid Support Forces, whose battle he said is losing.
In the same direction, the researcher at the Khartoum Center for Dialogue, Al-Rasheed Al-Mutasem, went as he accused the Rapid Support Forces of encroaching on prisons and expelling prisoners, speaking of testimonies of prisoners proving this, and said that the support forces may have wanted to shuffle the cards and send messages abroad, especially to the United States of America and the Europeans. By linking these elements to cross-border terrorism, they – that is, the support forces – miscalculated, as al-Mu'tasim added.
He pointed out that the former head of the National Congress Party, Ahmed Haroun, had discounts and reservations about the Rapid Support Forces, and that his release was due to the lack of experience and confusion among the members of the Rapid Support Forces.
The former head of the National Congress Party, Ahmed Haroun, surprised the Sudanese yesterday with an audio statement in which he said that he had left prison with other former officials, and that they would provide protection for themselves. However, the army later said that Al-Bashir and a number of other military symbols of his regime are being held in the "Alia" military hospital, where they were transferred from "Cooper" prison before the military confrontations in Khartoum.
Political hands involved
As for the writer and political analyst, Al-Basha Tabiq, it is likely that political hands within the military establishment are behind the release of political detainees from prison, with the aim of adding fuel to the fire and further complicating the Sudanese scene, citing the statements of Ahmed Haroun, the former minister in Al-Bashir’s government, which included The dissolved National Congress Party supported the army in confronting the support forces and called on the Sudanese to rally around it.
In his interview with the “Beyond the News” program, Tabiq denied the involvement of the Rapid Support Forces in releasing political prisoners, saying that it had no relationship or interest in getting them out of prison, stressing in the same context that the prisoners themselves did not mention that the Rapid Support Forces were the ones who took them out. In addition, the Sudanese Ministry of Interior is responsible for securing prisoners, as the guest continued.
The Sudanese Ministry of Interior had accused the Rapid Support Forces, led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), of being responsible for the disturbances and serious crimes they committed against the country, including storming a number of prisons and releasing what it called "hardened criminals."
