Khartoum Discusses With Cairo Extradition of Bashir’s Aides

Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir sits inside a cage at the courthouse where he was facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan September 28, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir sits inside a cage at the courthouse where he was facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan September 28, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
TT

Khartoum Discusses With Cairo Extradition of Bashir’s Aides

Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir sits inside a cage at the courthouse where he was facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan September 28, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir sits inside a cage at the courthouse where he was facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan September 28, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Sudan’s Attorney General Mubarak Othman discussed with Egyptian Prosecutor General Hamada Al-Sawy the extradition of a number of aides to former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who had sought refuge in Egypt.

Informed sources in the Sudanese Public Prosecution told Asharq Al-Awsat that the most important figures demanded by Khartoum was the former Sudanese intelligence chief, Salah Abdullah, also known as Gosh, in addition to other members of the ousted regime, who had fled to Egypt after Bashir’s downfall in April 2019.

The Egyptian authorities had refused a request by the former Sudanese Attorney General, Taj Al-Sir Al-Haber, to extradite Gosh. Consequently, Khartoum began procedures for his extradition through Interpol in criminal reports pertaining to terrorism, financial corruption and torture of political detainees during the outbreak of popular protests in Sudan in 2018.

The sources noted that serious discussions took place between the Sudanese Public Prosecutor and his Egyptian counterpart, which resulted in a “major breakthrough.”

They added that the Egyptian side expressed its “full readiness” to discuss cooperation in handing over the wanted persons to the Sudanese authorities.

Othman’s visit to Cairo came at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart, during which they signed several memoranda of understanding, including an agreement on training Sudanese prosecutors in the Egyptian criminal investigation institutes.

The sources reported that Othman returned to Khartoum with high optimism over cooperation with Egypt on the file of wanted persons, although Cairo did not issue an official confirmation in this regard.



UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
TT

UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)

The UN's World Food Program said Sunday it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible after border crossings reopened as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal.

"We're trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time," the WFP's Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP, as the Rome-based UN agency's trucks began rolling into the strip.

"We're moving in with wheat flour, ready to eat meals, and we will be working all fronts trying to restock the bakeries," Skau said, adding the agency would attempt to provide nutritional supplements to the most malnourished.

An initial 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory after 15 months of war.

"The agreement is for 600 trucks a day... All the crossings will be open," Skau said.

The first WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north, the agency said in a statement, as it began trying to pull "the war-ravaged territory back from starvation".

"We have 150 trucks lined up for every day for the next at least 20 days," Skau said, adding that the WFP was "hopeful that the border crossings will be open and efficient".

There needs to be "an environment inside (Gaza) that is secure enough for our teams to move around," so that food "does not just get over the border but also gets into the hands of the people".

"It seems so far that things have been working relatively well.... We need to now sustain that over several days over weeks," he said.

Before the ceasefire came into effect, WFP was operating just five out of the 20 bakeries it partners with due to dwindling supplies of fuel and flour, as well as insecurity in northern Gaza.

"We're hoping that we will be up and running on all those bakeries as soon as possible," Skau said, stressing that it was "one of our top priorities" to get bread to "tens of thousands of people each day".

"It also has a psychological effect to be able to put warm bread into the hands of the people".

WFP also wants to "get the private sector and commercial goods in there as soon as possible," he said.

That would mean the UN agency could replace ready meals with vouchers and cash for people to buy their own food "to bring back some dignity" and allow them "frankly to start rebuilding their lives".

WFP said in a statement that it has enough food pre-positioned along the borders -- and on its way to Gaza -- to feed over a million people for three months.

Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 Hamas attack last year sparked the war.

The attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.