57 Darfuris released from illegal detention after embarking on hunger strike

57 illegally detained Darfuris have been released after embarking on an open-ended hunger strike earlier this month. At least 163 are still held in prisons throughout Sudan. 14 detainees released from Port Sudan Prison arrived in Khartoum on Sunday evening.

On December 16, 21 detainees were released from El Huda Prison in Omdurman. 14 others were released from Ardamata Prison in El Geneina, West Darfur, and ten from El Fasher Prison in North Darfur.

The 14 West Darfur detainees who were released from Port Sudan Prison made their way to Khartoum this weekend.

The detainees started a hunger strike, which prompted the authorities to release some of them. They were released without any means to reach their homes after spending as much as 22 months in detention.

The West and North Darfur Detainees Defence Committee, which was set up in cooperation with the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) and the Rule of Law Initiative, reported in a press statement yesterday that 95 detainees are still being held in Port Sudan, Red Sea state. 68 others are held in Ardamata Prison in El Geneina, West Darfur.

Among those released from Port Sudan prison are Ahmed Hasan Adam and his son Feisal. Eight of their relatives remain in detention.

Hunger strikes

More than 200 people from West Darfur, held without charges in various prisons in Sudan, started an open-ended hunger strike on December 11. They have been detained illegally in poor conditions without a fair trial.

The detainees will continue their hunger strike until their arbitrary detention ends or they will be brought to a fair trial, according to a press statement made by 80 West Darfuri detainees held in Port Sudan Prison in Red Sea state.

The statement was also made on behalf of the 127 other detainees from West Darfur held in El Huda Prison in Omdurman and Ardamata Prison.

Last week, leading member of the DBA El Sadig Ali Hasan told Radio Dabanga that the detainees’ hunger strike continued “amid complacency from the local community and the United Nations, and complete disregard and neglect from all sides”.

He criticised the silence and inaction of the international community.

Mistreatment

Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation (DNMD), which has previously advocated for the release of the West Darfuri detainees, interviewed several of the 21 detainees who were released from El Huda Prison last week.

Yahya Yousef was held when he was trying to collect financial aid to cover the medical bills of his ailing wife. He was taken to Ardamata Prison and was later transferred to El Huda Prison. Following his release on Friday, he discovered his wife and two children had died as a result of the sickness.

Abdallah Dawoud Nassar was summoned to the RSF offices in El Geneina in a phone call. When he reached the buildings, he was held and transferred to El Huda Prison without explanation.

“I suffered immensely during my detention; I fell sick and started to urinate blood. I went into a hunger strike upon which I was released,” he told DNMD.

“I was made to sign a pledge neither to pursue the matter of my detention nor what happened to me during the detention and not to get involved in tribal conflicts. I lost all my money following my detention and my family suffered greatly.”

‘I suffered immensely during my detention; I fell sick and started to urinate blood’

There were at least 15 minors (at the time of their arbitrary arrest) amongst the detainees. One of them, Mohamed Abdallah Osman, was 16 years old when he was detained.

“I was held in El Geneina on April 13, 2021, when I was working with my uncle in the city. Five days later I was transferred to El Huda Prison, and since that date, I remained in detention without any investigations or being brought to court,” he told DNMD.

Most of the released detainees in El Huda Prison spent 22 months in illegal detention. They were released without any means to reach their homes.

“DNMD welcomes this step of releasing the detainees from the different prisons and continuously advocates and calls upon the authorities to release the remainder of the detainees that continue to suffer in illegal detentions without a trial,” their statement read.

It called the mass detentions, without any fair legal trial or justification, a human rights abuse.

Darfur detentions

At the start of last month, the DBA announced that 350 Darfuris were illegally detained in prisons throughout Sudan at that point. All were detained without any legal justification, mostly by infamous the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In August, the Darfur Bar Association and partners reported the detention of at least 197 people by the RSF in West Darfur in a mass detention campaign that targeted tribal leaders who refused to partake in RSF-led reconciliation efforts and other activists, teachers, students, and farmers. Several people disappeared.

Displaced youth and other groups have been detained in the past year as well, causing at least 350 Darfuris to be illegally detained in Sudanese prisons at the start of last month, mainly by the RSF.

The detainees have been subjected to human rights violations by being illegally detained in poor conditions.