SUDAN, November 8, 2026 — Sudanese military authorities have detained former senior official Ahmed Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes in Darfur, according to two officials from his former ruling party and two members of his defence team. The reported detention could mark a major turn in a case that has remained unresolved for nearly two decades, but the army and the ICC had not publicly confirmed his custody or whereabouts by Sunday evening.
Two National Congress Party officials confirmed Haroun’s arrest to Reuters, while two lawyers on his defence team told the Associated Press that he had been detained in the eastern state of Kassala. The lawyers said they did not know where he was being held. Neither Sudan’s military authorities nor the court in The Hague had issued an immediate statement confirming the reports, and no transfer to international custody had been announced.
The distinction between a reported arrest and a confirmed handover is central to the story. Haroun has been sought by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s. If he is in military custody, that would not by itself mean he has been surrendered to the court or that proceedings in The Hague can begin. His location, the legal basis for his detention and the authorities controlling his custody remain unclear.
The reports emerged a day after Haroun appeared in a televised podcast interview in which he discussed the relationship between the National Congress Party and the Sudanese army. He said the two were not necessarily politically aligned but were united in the war against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The lawyers told the Associated Press they believed his recent comments may have contributed to the detention, but that explanation has not been confirmed by the army or the party officials who verified the arrest to Reuters.
The separate accounts from party officials and defence lawyers provide more than one line of reporting on the development, but they do not remove the need for official confirmation. The lawyers said Haroun was detained in Kassala, in eastern Sudan, and that his whereabouts were unknown. Reuters reported that two National Congress Party officials confirmed the arrest but said it was unclear why the army had moved against a figure associated with the former ruling establishment.
There was no public explanation from the military. The absence of an official account leaves several questions unanswered: whether Haroun is being held by the regular armed forces or another security body, whether he has been charged with a new domestic offence, whether he is being held under an existing order and whether the authorities intend to transfer him to the ICC. No court document or custody notice had been made public at the time of reporting.
The podcast interview is relevant because it placed Haroun’s political position back in public view. He discussed the National Congress Party’s relationship with the army during the current war and described a common interest in defeating the RSF despite political differences. The lawyers’ suggestion that the interview may have prompted his detention is an interpretation from people representing him, not an established motive. The party officials who confirmed the arrest did not provide a reason for it.
Haroun was a senior figure in the government of Omar al-Bashir, serving as interior minister and later leading the National Congress Party. The party was central to the political system that governed Sudan for three decades before Bashir was removed in 2019. Haroun’s position made him one of the most prominent figures named in the ICC’s Darfur investigation, and his case has remained a test of whether senior officials accused of atrocities could be brought before an international court.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Haroun in April 2007. Prosecutors accused him of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur in 2003 and 2004. The allegations include murder, rape, persecution, forcible transfer of civilians and torture. Haroun has denied the charges and has described them as politically motivated. The allegations have not been tested in a trial, and he is presumed innocent unless and until a court establishes guilt.
The case stems from the conflict that began in Darfur in 2003, when rebel groups challenged the government in Khartoum over political exclusion and the distribution of power and resources. The government’s counter-insurgency campaign involved allied militias and was accompanied by large-scale attacks on civilians, displacement and destruction of villages. The ICC’s investigation focused on individuals it considered responsible for some of the gravest crimes alleged during the early phase of the conflict.
The United Nations Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in Resolution 1593 in March 2005. The resolution directed the Sudanese government and all other parties to the conflict in Darfur to cooperate fully with the court and provide necessary assistance. Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute, but the Security Council’s referral created a separate obligation for the government to cooperate with the investigation.
That obligation has not previously produced Haroun’s transfer to The Hague. He was detained in Sudan in April 2019 after the uprising that led to Bashir’s removal, along with the former president and other senior officials wanted by the ICC. The military authorities did not hand those figures over to the court. Haroun later left the prison where he was being held after the facility was attacked in April 2024 during the war between the army and the RSF.
The ICC’s public case record has continued to list Haroun as at large. A new period of detention, if confirmed, would therefore be important, but the legal consequences would depend on what Sudan’s authorities do next. The court cannot begin proceedings simply because a suspect is reported to have been arrested inside Sudan. It would need confirmation of custody and, for the case to move forward in The Hague, the suspect would have to be surrendered to the court.
The reported arrest comes as Sudan’s army and the RSF continue a conflict that began in April 2023 and has fractured state institutions, displaced millions of people and deepened an already severe humanitarian emergency. The fighting has been accompanied by allegations of ethnic killings, sexual violence, looting and attacks on civilian areas. United Nations agencies have described the crisis as the world’s largest humanitarian emergency, with access to food, healthcare and shelter severely disrupted in several regions.
Darfur has again become a central theatre of the war. The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias mobilised during the earlier conflict, and the region has experienced renewed mass violence. UN experts have warned that atrocities committed during the current fighting may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The earlier ICC cases and the current conflict are legally distinct, but both raise the question of whether commanders and political leaders can be held accountable when armed groups control territory and state institutions are weakened.
Haroun’s position also reflects the complicated relationship between the army and political networks associated with the former regime. Reuters reported that operatives from the Islamist movement say they have helped the army’s advances against the RSF. That does not establish that the National Congress Party and the military have formed a formal alliance, but it illustrates how people and networks from the Bashir era remain relevant to the conflict. Haroun’s own comments acknowledged that political differences had not prevented cooperation against a common enemy.
Rights groups and activists have long argued that the detention and transfer of ICC suspects should not depend on the balance of power between armed factions. The Emergency Lawyers group condemned Haroun’s recent interview and called for him to be handed to the international court, according to the Associated Press. Its position reflects the concern that political calculations could once again delay accountability for crimes alleged in Darfur. The group does not control the military’s decision, and there was no indication that a transfer had been agreed.
The reported detention may therefore carry both legal and political implications. If the army confirms it and allows the ICC to take custody, it would represent a major change from the refusal to surrender Haroun after his 2019 detention. If he remains in domestic custody without access to the court, the immediate development may have little effect on the long-running case. If the reports are mistaken or the military denies them, the uncertainty will deepen around a figure whose whereabouts have been unclear since the prison attack in 2024.
The first requirement is a clear account from Sudan’s authorities identifying where Haroun is being held and under whose authority. A statement from the military or the relevant judicial body would help establish whether the reported detention is formal and whether any domestic proceedings are involved. The ICC prosecutor’s office would also need to clarify whether it has received information from Sudan or is seeking confirmation through its own channels.
Any decision to transfer Haroun would raise practical and political questions for the military leadership, which is fighting for control of the country and relies on a shifting collection of political and armed allies. The army has previously resisted handing over senior figures from the Bashir era. A decision to cooperate now would be significant, but it should not be assumed from the reports of detention alone.
For victims and survivors of the Darfur conflict, the central issue is whether the allegations can finally be tested in court. The passage of time has made evidence gathering more difficult, while the current war has created new risks for witnesses and investigators. An arrest could open a path towards accountability, but only if custody is confirmed, legal safeguards are respected and the case proceeds through a transparent judicial process.
Until the military or the ICC provides confirmation, Haroun’s reported detention remains a development supported by party officials and defence lawyers rather than an officially acknowledged transfer. The distinction is not procedural detail: it determines whether a long-outstanding arrest warrant has moved closer to enforcement or whether another period of uncertainty has begun.