ACJPS applauds as Sudan’s El Burhan lifts passport issue ban

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has applauded the Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and de facto leader of the ruling junta, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, for instructing the Passports and Immigration Department of the Interior Ministry to ensure that no Sudanese citizen is denied a passport and identification documents.

El Burhan’s directive was issued after consultations of the national and social political forces on the roadmap for the Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue in on 08 February, attended by political and civil rights actors in Port Sudan (the current capital of the Sudanese administration), and follows multiple complaints from Sudanese citizens whose applications for the issuance and renewal of Sudanese passports had been overlooked due to their presumed political affiliations.

The ACJPS applauds Lt Gen El Burhan for lifting the ban on passport applications and renewals, the organisation says in a statement today. “The ban discriminatively targeted political figures from various groups, including the Freedom for Change Coalition (FCC) and the National Uma Party, as well as other individuals, such as activists, presumed on unfounded grounds to be affiliates of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). For instance, Maryam Elsadig El Mahdi, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, was among those discriminatively targeted by the passport issuing authorities during the ban,” ACJPS says.

In its statement, the ACJPS makes recommendation including that Sudanese authorities should reduce the hefty passport-issuing fees, which are currently $250 for applicants living outside Sudan, most of whom are refugees. El Burhan should promptly instruct Sudanese authorities to stop assuming the political affiliation of Sudanese civilians and using it against them during service delivery, and that Sudanese authorities must uphold all the rights of citizens guaranteed under regional and international treaties ratified by Sudan, including the right to liberty and a fair trial.