Salaamedia Report
the current Sudanese war between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has been accompanied by several arrests, detention, and enforced disappearances by the warring parties; a large number of people and civilians have been arrested in various parts of the country, under the pretext of being accused of collaborating with one of warring parties. Mr. Radwan Nouicer, the United Nations Human Rights expert on Sudan, expressed his concern about the deteriorating of human rights situation in Sudan. Mr. Radawn Nouicer said in a press release that issued by the UN Human Rights Office that during his recent visit to Sudan, he urged the authorities to take urgent action in four areas, including: stopping the arbitrary arrest and detention of individuals, including civil society activists; and ensuring that all those involved in human rights violations and abuses are held accountable.
Mr. Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war in Sudan, “Since the outbreak of fighting on the 15th of April 2023 AD, many civilians have been subjected to enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention, in addition to disturbing reports of torture by both parties.” The High Commissioner condemned arbitrary arrest, detention, threat and intimidation against civil society representatives, human rights defenders, journalists, and others.
Arrests in Darfur
Through the monitoring and research conducted by Salamedia team to prepare this report, it became clear that, the parties practicing arrest, detention, and enforced disappearances in the Darfur region have multiplied according to the number of armies and armed factions in the region; this is after a number of armed movements joined the fighting in the ranks of armed forces, as the arrest included the journalists, lawyers, activists, and human rights defenders in civil society organizations, and extended to include tribal leaders, displaced persons, government employees and others.
Restrictions on Journalists
Since the outbreak of the war, about nine Sudanese journalists have been killed, and dozens of them have been subjected to arrests and threat. According to the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, more than 40 journalists have been arrested and detained, since the outbreak of this war, some of them from Dafur, including Ahmed Jamam, who was arrested by the joint force of the armed struggle movements in Alfashir, while the Rapid Support Forces arrested journalists Issa Dafallah in Nyala, Abdel Aziz Arja in Zalenjei, Zamzam Khater in Alfashir and Einam Alnour in Al-Jinena city.
The Sudan war Monitor website indicated that the Rapid Support Forces detained a photographer called Ahmed Abdul Alhaj on April 30, 2024 from the western entrance to Alfashir while he was coming from Kutum and tortured him to death.
Arrests of Lawyers and Teachers
The arrests carried out by the warring parties in Sudan have included a number of lawyers and teachers in Darfur States. On May 2, 2024, the Sudanese Teachers Committee said in a press statement the Rapid
Support Forces arrested Dr. Adam Ishag Idriss, a teacher in South Darfur State, and took him to an unknown location. On August 3, 2023, Radio Dabanga reported, quoting the Darfur Bar Association, the Rapid Support Forces arrested the head of its branch in South Darfur, lawyer Adam Sharif. The association said in a statement dated May 2, 2024, that several months ago it had not received any information about Ali Hussien Endod, who has been detained by the Rapid Support Forces since April 15, 2023. The commission called for the disclosure of the place of detention of human rights expert Abdel-llah Abdel-Quader Al-Hassan, Director of the Firefly Organization for Children with Special Needs. she indicated in the same statement that a force of rapid support elements also arrested Mubarak Abdullah Muhammed Ahmed from his workplace in the garden of Al Jeneina in the city of Nyala, and he and others were transported to the detention centers of the Daman Hotel in the airport district.
In mid-May, the intelligence of the armed forces, arrested professor Abudallah Musa Yaqoub, Director of Alfashir University, and Dr. Issa Daoud, head of the Center for Call, Guidance and Reconciliation at the University of Alfashir, were arrested, according to the Darfur newspaper 24, Al- Ghali explained in a video recorded by Salamedia that their number in one room was 68 detainees, eight of whom died inside the prison.
The Arrests of the Activists
In Jule, 2024, the intelligence of the joint force of armed forces carried out a massive campaign of arrests of political leaders and citizens in the city of Alfashir, due to suspicion of their cooperation with the Rapid Support Forces. Lawyer Abdu Al-Aziz Sam said in a message to the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minio Arko Minnawi, dated June 22, 2024, AD that the intelligence of the Sudan Liberation Movement arrested the former parliamentarian and human rights activist Siham Hassan Hasaballah. The Joint forces also arrested an employee of the North Darfur government and a leader in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, Malik Agar, Muhammed Abdul Gadir Jalab.
On July 23, 2024, Darfur 24 newspaper conducted interviews with former detainees by the Joint Forces of the Armed Movements in the city of Alfashir, where Muhaimin Yousif said that he spent 47 days in detention at the former headquarters of (UNAMID) mission, and that he witnessed the death of seven of the detainees with him in the room due to hunger, disease, and torture. Aisha Adam Ahmed, a citizen from Alfashir, reported that people wearing civilian clothes and using military vehicles arrested her husband from their home in Al-Nasr neighborhood on Friday, May 17, 2024, and took him to an unknown location.
Darfur 24 newspaper reported, quoting a police officer in Alfashir, that the Joint Force arrested his colleague, Police Assistant Abdul Moiz Jamal El-Dien, who works in Passport and Migration in North Darfur, from his home in the First class neighborhood in June 2024, and took him to detention, where he died as a result of being tortured. Makina Ahmed narrated that the Joint Force affiliated with the Armed Struggle Movements arrested her son, who was later released after mediation by a number of notables in Alfashir, while her brother Yussif Ahmed was not released, and his news was cut off from the family.
Sources said, according to Darfur 24 newspaper, that 34 detainees held by the Rapid Support Forces managed to escape after being arrested from the eastern and south-eastern neighborhoods of Alfashir at different times since the fighting intensified on May 10. Civil activist, Osman Yussif, told Darfur 24 the Rapid Support Forces arrested Ali Al-Tahir Muhammed Jaber, Muhammedin Al-Zaki Khawaf, Al-Tayeb Al-Jamil, Yousif Daoud, and 33 others in the city of Buram because they were accused of being loyal to the Armed Forces. According to sources from Nyala, the arrests targeted former police and army personnel with the aim of recruiting them into their ranks, in addition to civil service employees and citizens who have no connection to the regular forces.
Regional and Ethnic Arrests
Salamedia team found one case of regionally motivated arrest in Darfur Region through its research, where a citizen from Alfashir told Sudan War Monitor that he was detained by the Armed Forces Intelligence of the 6th Infantry Division for two weeks between July 1, and 15, 2024. E explained that he was subjected to verbal abuse by members of Military Intelligence and was branded a rebel because he hails from the Kutum area, which is controlled by Rapid Support Forces.
It is worth noting that there arrests of Darfuris in a number of Sudanese states under the control of the Armed Forces, such as the Nile River, Port Sudan, and Gadaref, for regional reasons.
Negative Phenomena Arrests
The civil administration formed by Rapid Support Forces in South Darfur declared a state of emergency in the city of Nyala, under which it launched an arrest campaign that included a number of citizens. Informed sources told Darfur 24 that the campaigns that targeted the city’s markets and neighborhoods resulted in the arrest of hundreds of citizens for violating the emergency orders issued by the civil administration. The head of the civil administration in the state announced the trial of 37 defendants with imprisonment and fines for violating the emergency orders. While investigations continue to try others. The SBC network quoted one of the detainees who was released as saying that the Rapid Support Forces are still arresting civilians and soldiers under the pretext of combating negative phenomena. He added that the place where he was arrested contains more than 100 detainees on various charges who must pay sums of money and take an oath in order to be released.
Detention Sites
Detention sites have varied among the warring parties in Darfur, and according to what the Salamedia team obtained through its research, the parties have exploited police stations, government headquarters, and the former headquarters of the UNAMID mission for detention purposes. In interview conducted by Darfur24 with a number of those released and those close to some of the victims who died in the detention centers of Alfashir, Muhaimin Youssif said that he was detained in the former headquarters of the UNAMID mission, which became the main headquarters of the Armed movements’ forces in Alfashir. This was confirmed by a police officer in the same interview, who said that the joint force has several detention centers in Alfashir, including the former headquarters of UNAMID mission and Zamzam camp, in addition to other prisons in the Golo reservoir area, which is nine kilometers west of Alfashir.
Osman Abdullah, a bus driver, from Adaein, told Darfur 24 that he was arrested from the livestock market in Alfashir by five armed men and was taken to silo checkpoint, and detained with others in containers that each held more than 10 people. One of those released told Sudan War Monitor that a Rapid Support Forces Force took him from his home in Nyala to the popular market police station on charges of collaborating with Sudanese Armed Forces, before transferring him to the Intelligence Headquarters of the 16th Infantry Division in the city center a citizen who was arrested by the Rapid Support Forces at Aljinena bus stop in Nyala explained that he was detained at the popular police headquarters in the airport neighborhood next to the Sudanese Red Crescent, east of the traffic police department. Abu Bakr Omar, who was released after 3 weeks of detention, told Darfur24 that he was detained at the General Intelligence Service Headquarters east of Nyala. A released detainee told SBC that he was arrested from the popular market in Nyala and taken to a site in the Masaneh neighborhood north of Nyala where he stayed there for about a month before being released,
A released detainee revealed to Darfur 24 that he knew of a number of detention centers in Umm Al-Qura, more than 40 kilometers north-west of Nyala, Daqris prison, about 20 kilometers west of Nyala, Nyala Central, North and Al-Jeer police stations, a detention center for native administration leaders at the Rapid Support Forces headquarters in the airport neighborhood, and a security police detention center west of the stock exchange,
It is worth noting that the US government indicated in its 2023 annual report on human rights in Sudan that the warring parties sudan committed serious and widespread human rights violations. Based on the information contained in the report, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that members of the Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces have committed war crimes, and that members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.