Ahmed Haroun, a former minister of Sudan who was wanted for war crimes, was released from a prison in Khartoum.

A former senior official in the former government of Sudan who was wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity was recently released from jail in the country's capital, Khartoum.

Numerous Sudanese leaders, including Ahmed Haroun, the leader of the country's ruling National Congress Party, were detained in 2019 as a result of a popular revolt and military takeover that brought down the government of former President Omar al-Bashir.

As Sudan's State Minister for the Interior and later State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Haroun is accused of committing more than 40 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur in the early 2000s, including murder, rape, torture, attacks on civilians, and property destruction.

Since conflict between two military factions started 12 days ago, Sudan has descended into pandemonium.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 459 people have died and more than 4,000 have been injured, and some areas of the capital Khartoum have turned into a combat zone.

In an audio clip shared on social media on Tuesday, Haroun claimed that after mayhem erupted on Sunday in the Kober jail in Khartoum, he and a number of other former regime figures—whom he did not name—had fled the facility.

After inmates at Kober jail burned two automobiles inside the prison grounds to protest the lack of food and water, authorities released the prisoners, two Sudanese police sources told reporters. 

According to Haroun's allegation in the audio clip, he and other individuals made the decision to escape the jail with the assistance of the military and prison guards, and they have since been transported to a secure location. When things were back to normal, he declared that he would surrender to the police.

Unverified sources stated that the former president of Sudan, al-Bashir, was one of the convicts freed from Kober prison.

Bashir is still being held by the Sudan Armed Forces at a military hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, according to the media office of the Sudanese Police and sources familiar with the situation, who spoke to  our correspondents 

According to sources cited by our correspondents, Bashir was moved to Alia Specialized Hospital a year ago because of health issues.

The media office of Sudan's Police called our correspondents on Monday and said, "Al-Bashir is still in the hospital, and all the former regime leaders were evacuated from Kober prison before the other inmates were released yesterday."

Since two competing generals' power struggle broke out in the open, Khartoum's streets and the towns surrounding the capital have seen fighting between soldiers loyal to each general.

According to a witness who spoke to our team on Tuesday, food and water are "running out" in Khartoum state. The National Public Health Laboratory in the capital was taken over by Sudanese rebels on Tuesday, and the WHO also issued a warning about a "huge biological risk" as a result.

A tense 72-hour ceasefire, announced on Tuesday, sparked a rush among nations to evacuate their residents in the hopes that it might free up escape routes for the fleeing civilians.

On Tuesday, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Sudan stated that while "in some parts" the truce looked to be holding, "reports of sporadic shooting are still coming in as well as reports of relocation of troops"