Sudanese Military Leader’s Son Dies of Injuries Following a Motorcycle Crash in Turkey

1:35 PM EDT, May 3, 2024

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The son of Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah Burhan, has died in hospital on Friday two months after he was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.

Mohammed Fattah Burhan Rahman was being treated at an Ankara hospital since the March 6 accident in which his motorbike crashed into a vehicle in the outskirts of the city, Anadolu Agency said.

The private DHA news agency said he was thrown several meters (yards) from his motorbike due to the impact of the collision and was being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Burhan, Sudan’s de-facto leader, and other family members were informed about the death, DHA reported.

There was no immediate statement from the Turkish authorities. Sudanese embassy officials could not be reached for comment.

Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military, led by Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the western Darfur region.

Earlier this year, the son of Somalia’s president was convicted of “causing death by negligence” by a Turkish court after a diplomatic car he was driving hit a motorcycle courier on a highway in Istanbul. The court sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison but later commuted the sentence to a fine.