Sudan’s military authorities have given preliminary approval for ousted President Omer al-Bashir to travel abroad for medical treatment, but the decision awaits final authorisation, a member of his defence team said on Wednesday, 30 September 2026.
Lawyer Mohamed El-Hassan El-Amin said Bashir, 82, required diagnostic tests and medical procedures unavailable in Sudan, although his condition was not critical.
The lawyer told Sudan Tribune that a request for overseas treatment had received initial approval but had yet to be implemented. Any departure would require final clearance from senior military and political leaders.
Bashir, who was removed from power following a popular uprising in 2019, has been held under preventive detention since fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in mid-April 2023.
He and several former officials had been standing trial over their roles in the military coup of 30 June 1989, which brought him to power. The proceedings were suspended indefinitely after the war began.
In September 2024, military authorities transferred Bashir and three former officials from the Wadi Sayidna military area in Omdurman to a hospital in the northern town of Merowe because of deteriorating health.
Those moved with him were 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. According to El-Amin, Bashir has since returned to the capital area and is receiving treatment under custody at the Aliaa specialist military hospital in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum.