Sudan Military Council Deports 3 Opposition Figures

  • 6/11/2019
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The ruling Sudanese Transitional Military Council deported on Monday three leaders of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). "I was deported against my will... I have not been released; I have been deported from my country," Yasir Arman, deputy chief of the SPLM-N, told an AFP reporter at a hotel in South Sudans capital Juba. He revealed that he was deported from Khartoum to South Sudan with two comrades hours after authorities claimed to have released the three men from detention. Sudanese state television reported earlier on Monday that Arman -- together with fellow leading rebels Ismail Jalab and Mubarak Ardol -- had been released from custody. "I came together with comrade Ismail Khamis Jalab and comrade Mubarak Ardol... I just want to confirm I have been deported against my will," Arman told AFP, adding he had been well received by authorities in Juba. Arman said on Twitter he had been "deported against my will by a military helicopter from Khartoum to Juba. "I was not aware of where they were taking me. I asked them many times," he added, alleging that he, Jalab and Ardol had been tied up for their flight. A statement from SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar said the three officials had been “denied access to their accommodation” and deported in a military aircraft to Juba. “This happened despite their rejection of the forceful deportation,” the statement said, adding that the move showed the military council’s intention “not to hand power to the civilians and not to reach peace”. Arman had arrived in Khartoum in late May to take part in talks with a military council that in April toppled longtime President Omar al-Bashir, after months of protests against his 30-year-rule. But protesters remained outside army headquarters in Khartoum to demand that the military council hand over to civilian rule, before they were dispersed in a crackdown that left dozens dead. The deportation comes on the second day of a nationwide civil disobedience campaign in Sudan, in protest against the crackdown. Armans SPLM-North is the political wing of a rebel movement that has fought against Sudanese security forces in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states for much of the last decade. South Sudan seceded from Sudan to create the worlds newest country in July 2011.

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