Yasir Arman deported from Sudan

On 10 June 2019 Sudanese security forces deported Yasir Arman, deputy head of the rebel SPLM-North, to South Sudan along with two colleagues. He had returned to Khartoum after the fall of Omar al-Bashir to join talks with the opposition, and his removal came days after the deadly crackdown on the sit-in.

Deportation of opposition negotiators after the Khartoum crackdown

On 10 June 2019 Sudan’s military authorities deported opposition figure Yasir Arman to South Sudan, along with other members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North. Arman had returned to Khartoum after the removal of long-serving president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, hoping to take part in the negotiation over a civilian transition. Security forces detained him in early June 2019 as talks between civilian demonstrators and the Transitional Military Council deteriorated. On 3 June forces attacked a pro-democracy sit-in in central Khartoum, killing and injuring protesters; the full death toll remained disputed. The 10 June 2019 deportation occurred one week after that assault and curtailed an opposition leader’s presence at a pivotal moment in the political crisis.

Omar al-Bashir had ruled Sudan until his April removal, while military council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan became a leading authority during the transitional negotiations. Council deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti commanded the Rapid Support Forces, whose role in the violence drew sharp scrutiny. On 11 June 2019 Arman told Radio Tamazuj that the deportation had occurred against his will. South Sudan’s capital became the destination for opponents who had sought to participate in political discussions in Sudan itself.

The episode demonstrates the erosion of civic space through custody and forced cross-border removal of a political participant. It also connects to forced-displacement pressures, although the displacement of a handful of senior politicians is numerically different from the mass flight caused by war. Preventing negotiators from meeting domestic constituencies could narrow the range of actors involved in settlement discussions. Arman and colleagues were not reported to have undergone a transparent judicial process establishing grounds for expulsion. In August 2019 civilian and military representatives eventually signed a constitutional declaration for a transitional power-sharing arrangement, showing that the June deportation occurred before a temporary political compromise. That agreement did not erase the arrests, deaths or constraints imposed on opposition activity during the preceding weeks.