13,000 foreigners lose Sudanese citizenship and passports

At least 13,000 foreigners have lost their Sudanese citizenship and passports over an alleged misuse delivered under the former regime, SudanTribune reports.

Sudan's head of the Sovereign Council consented to the move following a request made by the interior minister at a cabinet meeting.

According to reports, those involved were granted Sudanese citizenship via naturalization from 1989 to 2019 but the passports had to be withdrawn due to suspected ties with some extremist Islamic groups.

The former regime had delivered Sudanese passports to some Islamist opposition from Arab countries.

A notable beneficiary is Rached Ghannouchi, a Tunisian politician and funder of the Ennahdha Party who in 2011 publicly thanked the al-Bashir government for giving him a diplomatic passport.

In January 2019, Algeria banned all Syrians from entering the country via its southern borders saying they are suspected of terrorist activities. Some of them were using fake Sudanese passports, according to statements to Reuters by an Algerian official.

A Sudanese official at the interior ministry confirmed to Sudan Tribune that the government has "decided to withdraw the nationalities granted by the ousted regime to foreigners, especially those with ties to extremist Islamic groups".

"The Sudanese passport was abused throughout the past regime, and even diplomatic passports were sold to the leaders of extremist religious groups," Mohamed al-Faki, Sovereign Council member and a spokesman said in November 2019.

His statement came after a technical committee was set up in May 2019 to review the issuance of Sudanese nationality to foreigners, one month after the collapse of the former regime.

"The sanctions against Sudan and its continued designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism did not come from a vacuum," he added before to emphasize that the revolution’s government came to correct these situations."

The withdrawal of Sudanese passport and nationality was taken upon the finding of a technical committee tasked to review the issuance of Sudanese nationality to

There are no official statistics for naturalized citizens in Sudan but Arab nationals who fled their countries to Sudan after the Arab Spring acquired Sudanese citizenship.

Source: Sudan Tribune