3 Daesh orphans return to Sudan from Libya

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM

Three Sudanese children were reunited with their extended family in Sudan on Tuesday after their parents, who had joined the Daesh terrorist group, had been killed in Libya.

Three of the children, who had spent three years in a child care house in Tripoli, hail to the family of fighter Mohamed Abuzaid, who had been killed while fighting with Daesh in Libya.

“They have been returned to Sudan to reunite with their extended family," lawyer Adel Abdul Ghani told Anadolu Agency.

He said Sudanese security organs and the Red Cross have played a major role in rescuing the children and returning them back to Sudan.

Abuzaid was detained in Sudan in 2008 for involvement in the killing of a U.S. diplomat. He fled prison in 2011 and travelled to Somalia, where he joined Al-Shabaab militant group.

He later left Somalia to Libya and joined Daesh terrorist group in the troubled North African country.

His brother Mohamed Abuzaid had also joined Daesh in 2014.

There are no official estimates of how many Sudanese have joined Daesh, but unofficial estimates put their numbers at hundreds.

More children to be returned

Sudanese assistant consular in Libya's coastal city of Sirte, Obied Mohamed Obied, said the children have been recovered after intensive talks with Libyan authorities.

Speaking to reporters, he said negotiations were still underway with Libyan authorities to hand over another six children still held in Red Cross facilities in Libya.

Sirte was a Daesh stronghold until last year when Libyan unity government forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, ousted the terrorist group from the coastal city.

Altijani Ibrahim, the head of the National Intelligence Sudanese Services (NISS)'s anti-terrorism department, said the return of the children was part of Sudan's efforts to combat terrorism.

In June, eight Daesh orphans were returned to Sudan after their parents had either been killed or arrested in Libya, which fell into chaos after the ouster and subsequent death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 uprising.

Sudan is on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993.