Omar al-Bashir Receives Initial Approval to Travel Abroad for Medical Treatment
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudanese military authorities have granted preliminary approval for former president Omar al-Bashir to seek medical treatment overseas, his lawyer said Wednesday, though the authorization has not yet been finalized or acted upon.
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Mohamed El-Hassan El-Amin, a member of Bashir’s defence team, said the 82-year-old former president needed examinations and medical procedures unavailable in Sudan. Bashir was not in critical condition, the lawyer said, but was experiencing symptoms requiring specialist assessment.
According to El-Amin, the defence team formally sought permission for Bashir to travel abroad and received an initial approval. The request must still be endorsed by senior military and political officials before the former president can leave the country, he said.
El-Amin added that the lawyers were continuing to urge the authorities to approve the trip and release Bashir from detention so he could receive the required care.
Bashir’s family, however, challenged that account, saying Wednesday that it had received no official notice authorizing his departure from Sudan.
The family said recent medical reports showed that treatment outside the country had become urgent. It also appealed directly to army chief and Sovereign Council head General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to permit Bashir to travel for medical care.
The conflicting statements have left the status of any government authorization uncertain. Bashir’s lawyer referred to a preliminary approval, while his family said it had not been informed of any formal decision.
Bashir was removed from office in April 2019 following months of mass protests that ended his nearly 30-year rule. He had taken power in a 1989 military coup.
He has remained detained since fighting broke out between Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. Court proceedings against Bashir and several former officials over the 1989 coup were suspended after the war began.
As his health worsened, military authorities moved Bashir and several former senior officials in September 2024 from the Wadi Sayidna military area in Omdurman to a hospital in the northern city of Merowe.
The group included former first vice president Bakri Hassan Saleh, former defence minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein and retired brigadier general Yousif Abdel Fattah. Saleh and Abdel Fattah were released on medical grounds in April 2025.
Bashir was later returned to the Khartoum area, where he is receiving treatment under military custody at Aliaa Specialist Hospital in Omdurman, his lawyer said.
The former president is also wanted under International Criminal Court arrest warrants over allegations linked to the conflict in Darfur. Any decision to allow him to leave Sudan for treatment could therefore have broader legal and political consequences, but the immediate question is whether the country’s military leadership will grant final approval.
AXADLETM
