Profile: Sudan's Ex-Intelligence Chief Salah Gosh

Salah Gosh, Arabic Website
Salah Gosh, Arabic Website
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Profile: Sudan's Ex-Intelligence Chief Salah Gosh

Salah Gosh, Arabic Website
Salah Gosh, Arabic Website

Sudan has finally succeeded in replacing its notorious intelligence Chief Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh, also known as Salah Gosh. During his tenure, the government body not only held a bad reputation but also was accused of orchestrating oppressive sweeps and violence against the people.

Gosh, who resigned two days ago, had buckled under the pressure of civil protests that marched for the removal of all stalwarts that served the former regime of the deposed Omar al-Bashir.

Among the host of accusations the former intelligence chief is condemned for by the public are; his spearheading of oppressive operations against demonstrators since December 19th and systematic killings targeting activists over the course of the last four months.

Gosh is believed to also have been plotting, with the help of his CIA connections, to become Sudan’s next president.

Born in 1957 in a far-off north Sudan town, Gosh grew up to graduate from the Faculty of Engineering at Khartoum University, where he participated in political activity linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

After graduating, Gosh pursued an intelligence career with the Nationalist Islamic Front, led by longtime hard-line ideological leader Hassan Al-Turabi. After a military junta took over the African country in 1989, Gosh officially joined national intelligence apparatuses.

Despite moving up the hierarchy, getting himself appointed as head of operations, Gosh’s career received a serious blow after he was caught plotting to assassinate, then Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

The intelligence strongman is also suspected of having close relations with former al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, whose records show he had a years-long stay in Khartoum until 1998.

In a surprise announcement in 2009, Bashir assigned Gosh as a presidential security advisor. However, his time in the former president’s trustees was short-lived.

About three years later, Gosh was arrested for plotting a coup alongside 13 other military and security top-shelf officials. After his release in 2013, he rejoined the parliament.

Gosh had also played a pivotal role in the dispute between al-Bashir and Turabi back in 1999, when he sided with Bashir.

The Bashir-Gosh partnering preceded the eventual downfall of Turabi.

Gosh's name emerged on the international scene during his close cooperation with the CIA for the handed overall-Qaeda-related information.



Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

The al-Manasra family rarely get enough water for both drinking and washing after their daily trudge to a Gaza distribution point like the one where eight people were killed on Sunday in a strike that Israel's military said had missed its target.

Living in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City, the family say their children are already suffering from diarrhea and skin maladies and from the lack of clean water, and they fear worse to come.

"There's no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications," said Akram Manasra, 51.

He had set off on Monday for a local water tap with three of his daughters, each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza's blazing summer heat, but they only managed to fill two - barely enough for the family of 10.

Gaza's lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of Israeli blockade is already having "devastating impacts on public health" the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report this month.

For people queuing at a water distribution point on Sunday it was fatal. A missile that Israel said had targeted fighters but malfunctioned hit a queue of people waiting to collect water at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's blockade of fuel along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services according to OCHA.

Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the tiny, crowded territory's dwindling water supply, and diseases causing diarrhea and jaundice are spreading among people crammed into shelters and weakened by hunger.

"If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what's becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours," said James Elder, the spokesperson for the UN's children's agency UNICEF.

"What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?" he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, an Israeli military official said that Israel was allowing sufficient fuel into Gaza but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

THIRSTY AND DIRTY

For the Manasra family, like others in Gaza, the daily toil of finding water is exhausting and often fruitless.

Inside their tent the family tries to maintain hygiene by sweeping. But there is no water for proper cleaning and sometimes they are unable to wash dishes from their meager meals for several days at a time.

Manasra sat in the tent and showed how one of his young daughters had angry red marks across her back from what he said a doctor had told them was a skin infection caused by the lack of clean water.

They maintain a strict regimen of water use by priority.

After pouring their two containers of water from the distribution point into a broken plastic water butt by their tent, they use it to clean themselves from the tap, using their hands to spoon it over their heads and bodies.

Water that runs off into the basin underneath is then used for dishes and after that - now grey and dirty - for clothes.

"How is this going to be enough for 10 people? For the showering, washing, dish washing, and the washing of the covers. It's been three months; we haven't washed the covers, and the weather is hot," Manasra said.

His wife, Umm Khaled, sat washing clothes in a tiny puddle of water at the bottom of a bucket - all that was left after the more urgent requirements of drinking and cooking.

"My daughter was very sick from the heat rash and the scabies. I went to several doctors for her and they prescribed many medications. Two of my children yesterday, one had diarrhea and vomiting and the other had fever and infections from the dirty water," she said.