Leader of Sudan's opposition National Umma Party (NUP) Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi on Thursday returned to the Sudanese capital Khartoum from his 30-month self-exile in Egypt.

"Imam Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi returned today," Mariam Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, assistant to NUP leader, told reporters outside Khartoum airport Thursday.

She accused the government authorities of attempting to cripple al-Mahdi's reception ceremony, saying that "the authorities allowed only 25 members of the party to receive the Imam."

Al-Mahdi left Sudan to France more than two years ago following a month in detention at Kober federal prison in Khartoum because of criticisms to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, before he returned to settle in Cairo after signing Paris Declaration with the Sudanese armed groups in August 2014.

source: Xinhua