Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein is a Sudanese politician and the former Governor of Khartoum State. Hussein served as the longstanding Minister of National Defense of The Republic of Sudan. Hussein also served for a period as the Minister of Interior Affairs. During his term as Minister of Interior Affairs, he opened the Rabat University. In later years, he was accused of supporting the Janjaweed and committing war crimes, allegations he and the government both strongly deny. Hussein was arrested in early April 2019 following a coup on 11 April which overthrew al-Bashir.
Early life
Hussein was born in 1949 Dongola, part of Northern State, although other sources have placed his birth in or around Dankla in Karma city in Khartoum North. In 1964 he began his secondary education in Khartoum. It was here that he became an Islamist and also where he met and became close friends with Omar al-Bashir.
Following the dissolution of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation he was appointed Minister of Interior Affairs by President Bashir, a position through which he dominated Sudan's internal security services. Whilst Interior Minister he was alleged to have worked directly with al-Qaeda during Osama bin Ladens time in Sudan from 1992 to 1996, and was alleged to have even provided al-Qaeda with sophisticated communications equipment. Despite being a strong Islamist, Hussein remained a loyal Bashir supporter following Bashir's rift with Hassan al-Turabi; the leader of the National Islamic Front, and quite possibly the most influential Sudanese Islamist, who had supported Bashir in his 1989 coup attempt. Hussein has recognised the major role Turabi played in the formation of the ideology that led the 1989 coup attempt, and spoke in 2002 about how although disliked the rift with Turabi due to the intellectual and political debt they owed him, Turabi's imprisonment was in fact necessary to protect the state that Turabi had advocated for. In 2003 President Bashir appointed Hussein as his special representative for Darfur. He held this position until 2004. He lost his job as Interior Minister in 2005 after the National Assembly demanded his resignation following a scandal caused by the collapse of a police hospital he owned.
Minister of Defence
He became the Minister of National Defense in 2005, although has faced problems in this position, such as in May 2008 when he faced calls for his resignation due to security failures resulting in the 2008 attack on Omdurman and Khartoum. He has also faced problems as Defence Minister from senior army officers demanding greater independence for the Sudanese Armed Forces from the National Congress Party. He has also been unsympathetic to rapprochement with the West, and even consoled the family of one of the killers of the US Diplomat John Granville following the death of the young militant in Somalia.
War crimes allegations
On 2 December 2011, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of the investigating the situation in Darfur, Luis Moreno Ocampo, requested a Pre-Trial Chamber of the Court to issue an arrest warrant against Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein for war crimes and crimes against humanity. On March 1, 2012, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Hussein, charging with 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes. As one of Bashir's closest allies, Hussein is accused of recruiting, arming and funding police forces and the Janjaweed militia in Darfur and also reported to be leading a campaign against rebels in the south.
2019 arrest
On 11 April 2019, al-Bashir was overthrown in a coup and Hussein was soon afterwards arrested. On 27 May 2020, Sudan’s public prosecution service announced that Hussein had tested positive for COVID-19 and was subsequently placed in quarantine.
