Khartoum/Kampala/The Hague — Deposed former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kobar prison in Khartoum from the presidential residence, family sources said on Wednesday, and a prison source said he was being held under tight security in solitary confinement.
Sudan's military ousted Bashir after weeks of mass protests that climaxed in a sit-in outside the defence ministry compound. Protests are continuing and their leaders say the unrest will not cease until the governing Transitional Military Council (TMC) hands power to a civilian-led authority ahead of elections.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), leading the revolt, has called for sweeping changes to end violent crackdowns on dissent, purge corruption and cronyism and ease an economic crisis that worsened during Bashir's last years in power.
In initial steps to tackle corruption, the TMC ordered the central bank to review financial transfers since April 1 and to seize "suspect" funds, state news agency Suna said on Wednesday.
Kobar, just north of central Khartoum adjacent to the Blue Nile River, housed thousands of political prisoners under Bashir's repressive rule and is Sudan's most notorious jail.
Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, an Islamist like Bashir, initially headed the TMC before stepping down after one day in the post. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has engaged in impromptu dialogue with protesters in the streets of the capital, now heads the council and has promised to hold elections within two years.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel movement in the southern states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, announced it was ceasing all hostilities until July 31 as a "goodwill gesture" following Bashir's overthrow.
SPLM-N leader Abdelaziz Adam al-Helew, in a statement conveyed to Reuters in Khartoum, said the move was to help facilitate "the immediate and smooth handover of power to civilians" in Sudan.
"Uganda would not be apologetic at all for considering an application by Bashir," Okello Oryem, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, said.
Bashir faces ICC arrest warrants over accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to the death of about 300,000 people. He denies the allegations.
In The Hague, an ICC spokesperson declined to comment "on hypothetical situations". ICC member states, which include Uganda, are legally obliged to hand over indictees who enter their territory.
Bashir has defied the ICC by visiting several several member states. Diplomatic rows broke out when he went to SA in 2015 and Jordan in 2017 and both declined to arrest him for extradition to the ICC in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Burhan fired Sudan's three highest-ranking public prosecutors after protesters demanded an overhaul of the judiciary as a step towards civilian government.
On Monday, the AU's Peace and Security Council urged the TMC to hand power to a transitional civilian-led authority within 15 days or risk Sudan being suspended from the AU.
But a delegation from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met Burhan in Khartoum on Tuesday, suggesting the TMC would enjoy support from powerful Gulf allies.