Former opposition leader set to end exile

A prominent Sudanese opposition politician is set to return to Sudan after 12 years in exile, news agencies reported on Sunday. Reuters quoted a spokesman from the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as saying on Sunday that Ahmad al-Mirghani, who was head of Sudan's Sovereignty Council in 1986 and went into exile in 1989 after the takevover of the country by its current president, Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, was expected to return to Khartoum by the end of October. "It will be the first time he returns in 12 years. He has wanted to return for a long time", the spokesman said. Mirghani's brother Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani heads the opposition DUP and the Cairo- and Asmara-based National Democratic Alliance, a coalition of northern and southern opposition groups. Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani was also currently in exile and would only return to Sudan "in the context of a comprehensive political solution to the war," the spokesman said.