Central Darfur’s ‘Nierteti detainees’ released, two others held

On Saturday, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) released 16 displaced people in Khartoum. Two displaced men were detained in the South Darfur capital of Nyala on Thursday.

The detainees were held in Central and South Darfur in July and August, and transferred to Khartoum. Among them were the displaced who were detained after they had attended a meeting with US Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Donald Booth during his visit to Nierteti in Central Darfur on 27 July.

El Shafee Abdallah, the coordinator of the Central Darfur camps for the displaced told Radio Dabanga that Adam Hamid Adam, Abdelaziz Adam Saleh, Ahmed Abdallah Omar, Adam Mohamed Ali, Nasreldin Yousef Abdelsalam, and Adam Suleiman from the Nierteti camps were released in the Sudanese capital on Saturday.

“All the people who met with the US Envoy are now released, except for El Tijani Seifeldin,” Abdallah said.

Security agents detained 15 of a group of 20 displaced elders, women, and youths, after their meeting with Donald Booth end July. The displaced had told Booth about the killings, rapes, detentions, and torture by the government and its militias, and the occupation of their land by new settlers. They further considered Unamid incapable of protecting itself, “let alone the displaced people”.

On 25 August the detainees were transferred to Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur. Later they were transported to Khartoum.

The detentions prompted a chorus of condemnation, at home and abroad. Foreign Affairs Minister Ibrahim Ghandour faced fierce criticism after he denied the detentions.

South Darfur displaced

Teacher Abdeljabbar Ahmed Abdelmoula, El Hadj Omar Abdelkabir, and Abdallah Mohamed Abdallah who were detained in Kass were also released in Khartoum on Saturday, together with Abdelmumin Ahmed El Taher and Ahmed Mahmoud who were held in the South Darfur capital of Nyala.

New detentions

The Central Darfur camp coordinator further reported that security officers held Abdelnasir Ahmed Khater, a student at the Nilein University, and Mohamed Saleh Ali in Nyala on Thursday.

“They took them to an unknown destination. The reasons are unclear so far.”

He explained that both men come from Central Darfur; Khater from Deleig camp for the displaced, and Ali from Bindisi camp. Their families fear that the detainees are subjected to mistreatment and torture.