At least one Egyptian national was arrested last Tuesday in Khartoum in an operation targeting what Sudanese security forces described as a “terrorist cell.” The Sudanese public prosecution has accused the group, made up of Sudanese and foreign nationals, of planning to conduct attacks in the Sudanese capital.
On Friday, the Sudanese public prosecution stated that the primary suspect in the group is an Egyptian national who confessed to working with a cell affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, whose leadership is based in Turkey.
“Investigations led us to find a number of small arms and light weapons in the possession of the defendants inside a house in Sharq al-Nile, along with documents outlining militant operations, forgery devices, computers, printers, ink cartridges, among other belongings. The objects have been confiscated and classified, and they are now under technical examination by the General Administration of Forensic Evidence,” the Sudan Police Force announced yesterday.
A source in the Sudanese government, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, says that Islamist groups are seeking to exact revenge on Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who curtailed the presence of many regional Islamist groups that previously found shelter and logistical support from the ousted government of Omar al-Bashir.”
“The authorities have been monitoring a number of Islamist groups, mostly coming from Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine. It is likely that they coordinate with Sudanese Islamists allied with the previous regime to execute vengeful attacks. They want to disrupt the revolutionary government and scare off its leaders and symbols, as well as frighten the youth groups that support the transitional government,” the source said.
A member of the Muslim Brotherhood who lived in Sudan for a few months before relocating to Turkey told Mada Masr that after the ouster of Bashir, Brotherhood leaders abroad began to issue directives for its members to quickly leave Sudan.
“Many young men were able to obtain Syrian travel documents issued by the opposition, which was enough to get them out of Sudan and into Turkey alone,” he explained.
This is not the first time that Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested in Sudan and accused of terrorist activity. In February 2017, when Bashir was still in power, security forces arrested at least 13 Egyptian members of the Brotherhood in Khartoum.
According to the information conveyed to Mada Masr at the time, the arrest campaign came after an explosion in a residential building in which Egyptian, Syrian, and Sudanese people lived. It was later revealed that the blast happened because someone was trying to manufacture an explosive device in the building.
