Sudan talks 'undermined' by opposition arrest

Talks in Sudan aimed at finding a way out of multiple crises in the country risked being undermined by the arrest of former prime minister and leading opposition figure Sadiq al-Mahdi, according to observers.

According to officials of his Umma Party, Mahdi was arrested for alleged treason by agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) from his home on Saturday night,

Mahdi is being held at Kober Prison, in the Khartoum area, for alleged treason after he reportedly accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of rape and other crimes against people in Darfur.

Prosecutors questioned him on Sunday at the Khartoum-area Kober Prison where he is being held, Umma's secretary general Sara Najdallah, told reporters.

Following Mahdi's arrest, Najdallah said her party was withdrawing from the dialogue and accused the government of going back to "square one."

She announced an "alert" for Umma supporters to peacefully oppose their leader's arrest.

Hundreds of them gathered on Sunday at Umma's Khartoum-area headquarters, an AFP reporter said.

They carried signs saying: "No dialogue with state security" and "Sadiq al-Mahdi's opinion is the opinion of the people."

Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute, said Mahdi's detention reflects a power play by elements of the state security service who "don't care" about the impact on the dialogue initiated by President Omar al-Bashir.

"The political system in Sudan is the rule of the military and the security," Gizouli told AFP.

Notorious militia deployed

Sudan's state security agency on Sunday ordered the RSF, which is accused of abusing civilians in the western region of Darfur, to deploy around the capital Khartoum.

Newspapers reported last week that NISS, which has authority over the RSF, filed a criminal complaint against Mahdi.

The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the European Union ambassador in Khartoum had also expressed concern about the RSF's activities.

But commanders of the unit denied last week that their men had looted, raped or committed arson.

General Abbas Abdelaziz described it as a "professional" force of 6,000 men "under the control of their commanders and the law".

They were carefully chosen and trained, including in the rights of civilians in war zones, he said.

Gizouli described the RSF as "Sudan's version of Blackwater," a private American security firm which became notorious in Iraq.

"There's no clear command structure over them. They are given missions. They perform those missions, and they get paid for them," Gizouli said.

Mbeki requests meeting

Chief mediator of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan Thabo Mbeki on Sunday asked Sudanese authorities to let him meet chief of the opposition National Umma Party al-Sadig al-Mahdi who was arrested Saturday for "damaging the reputation" of state security agencies.

The former South African President, “expressed concerns at al-Mahdi's detention and the effect of this move on dialogue in Sudan," al-Mahdi's daughter Mariam, also the head of communication at the Umma Party, told reporters following a meeting with the former South African president.

"He told us that he had requested a meeting with al-Mahdi and that he waits for the Sudanese government to respond," she added.

Commissioned to settle internal Sudanese disputes and also conflicts between Sudan and South Sudan, Mbeki met on Saturday with a host of Sudanese opposition leaders in Khartoum.