10 Egyptians arrested in Khartoum after exchange of fire kills 5 Sudanese intelligence personnel

After five Sudanese security personnel were killed on Tuesday in a clash with an armed militant group in Khartoum’s Jabra neighborhood, Sudanese security forces have arrested 11 people including 10 Egyptian nationals and one Nigerian, according to Sudanese security sources who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. 

A high-ranking Egyptian security delegation traveled to Khartoum on Thursday to discuss whether the Egyptian detainees will be handed over to Egyptian authorities, according to an Egyptian government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While Sudanese intelligence services asserted that the organization is affiliated with the Islamic State organization, another militant group which is not affiliated with IS has reportedly claimed responsibility for the exchange of fire and the five killings.

A statement published by the Sudanese General Intelligence Services on September 28 said that “a security operation was carried out to arrest” a militant, Islamic State-affiliated group and that “the operation resulted in the arrest of 11 foreign terrorists of various nationalities."

The intelligence statement indicated that the militants opened fire on the security forces, killing five people including two officers and three non-commissioned officers, and wounding another officer, before a group of four foreign nationals fled and were arrested by the security services later.

However, Agence France-Presse quoted an organization called Al-Rusali Current for Preaching and Combat – Wilayat Sudan, which claimed responsibility for killing the Sudanese intelligence personnel and which denies any organizational affiliation with IS. The same group claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt on Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok in March 2020, when no groups were announced responsible at the time.

Sources in the Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime, which is headed by the governor of Khartoum State and deals with security files as part of its remit to recommend the dissolution of political, partisan, security or economic organizations loyal to the regime of ousted former President Omar al-Bashir, told Mada Masr that the terrorist cell was linked to a Sudanese passport forgery network, and indicated that a Sudanese passport belonging to one of the Egyptians who was arrested had already been seized.

Among the Egyptian detainees is Akram Abdel Badie Ahmed Mahmoud, who was sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt on charges related to an attempted explosive attack on the Suez Canal in 2009.

Student Aya Hassan Abdel Salam Aboul Saud, who was alleged on social media to have been arrested and forcibly disappeared from Beni Suef in April 2019, was also among those detained in Sudan.