The president of Sudan has ordered the release of dozens of political prisoners, the state-run news agency Suna reported on Tuesday, an action that appeared intended to mollify human-rights critics.

The decision seemed to be a concession by the president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who came to power in 1989 in an Islamist and military-backed coup, and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

He is an international pariah. But Western governments have increasingly worked with his government, eager for his help in preventing violent extremism and in stemming the flow of African refugees northward into Libya and Egypt and then on to boats bound for Europe.

As a result, Sudan has achieved something of a rapprochement with the West. Last October, the Trump administration lifted a host of sanctions against the country, citing, among other things, its cooperation on counterterrorism.