The Gedaref Resistance Committees have rejected calls to allow ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to travel abroad for medical treatment, saying his health condition should not exempt him from legal accountability.
In a statement reported on Thursday, the committees said Bashir should remain in prison while receiving any necessary medical care inside Sudan, either in detention facilities or Sudanese hospitals.
The committees argued that Bashir’s medical condition should not be treated separately from what they described as the record of his three decades in power, saying access to healthcare was a right but should not become a means for him to leave the country and potentially evade justice.
They questioned why Bashir should be treated overseas when, in their view, Sudan’s hospitals, medical workers and wider health system received inadequate support during his rule. The statement accused his government of directing state resources toward security agencies and wars at the expense of basic public services.
The committees also cited abuses they attributed to Bashir’s former government, including the wars in southern Sudan, Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, the 1990 Ramadan executions, so-called “ghost houses” used for detention and torture, and the killing of demonstrators during the September 2013 protests and the December revolution.
They said Bashir’s health problems should not be used to bypass accountability, insisting that he receive treatment inside Sudan while continuing to face judicial proceedings over the charges against him.
