A US news portal is reporting that Sudan has been expelling Muslim Brotherhood members in an effort to repair its ties with Egypt. According to the World Tribune report, the Egyptian media reaction has been mixed as to whether or not the expulsions have taken place:
February 16, 2017 Sudan has reportedly been expelling Muslim Brotherhood members in an effort to mend ties with Egypt.
Khartoum in the past two months has expelled ‘tens’ of Muslim Brotherhood members who sought refuge in Sudan following the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, according to a report by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.
Sudanese President Omar Bashir, left, meets with Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi. The newspaper quoted an Islamist source who said that Sudanese authorities ‘sent indirect messages’ to Egyptian Islamists suggesting that it ‘is better for them to leave Sudan.’ Some of them traveled to Malaysia and others to Turkey, the report said.
Several Egyptian newspapers hailed the news, while some denied it was true.
Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi met with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Bashir in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last month and they agreed to begin a new phase of bilateral relations, a joint statement said.
Bashir told Al Arabiya in an interview on Feb. 12 that his relationship with Sisi is ‘very distinct,’ but the Sudanese leader denied that his regime had hosted Muslim Brotherhood members.
Following the Arab Spring uprisings, members of the Muslim Brotherhood across the region flocked to Sudan to reassemble themselves and hold meetings, an expert on Islamist groups told Asharq al-Awsat.
But due to pressure from Gulf states and the United States, he said, Sudan has ‘reconsidered’ its stance towards the group.
‘Cairo demands a complete dry-out for Muslim Brotherhood presence in Sudan in addition to the extradition of those wanted,’ he told the newspaper, adding that it is one the most detrimental issues with regards to diplomatic ties between the countries”
In January 2015, the GMBDW reported on an an announcement by the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan that it wouldn’t participate in the country’s elections. Other GMBDW reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan has included:
- In Many 2013, the GMBDW reported that the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood had taken the highly unusual step, for the Global Muslim Brotherhood at least, of declaring “jihad” on rebel Muslim groups in the country, a declaration placing the Sudanese Brotherhood in the same category as the so-called jihadi/takfiri groups.
- In January 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood of Sudan called on Arab and Islamic nations to “save Sudan from the US-Israeli schemes to divide it.”
- In February 2010, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan was backing the current President Omar Al-Bashir, who has been charged with war crimes by the international criminal court over the Darfur conflict and the first sitting head of state issued with an arrest warrant.