East Darfur Omda arrested after tensions

The Sudanese security service in Abu Karinka locality, East Darfur, detained a prominent community leader and a woman after local youth started an argument with members of Sudan's military force.

Omda Humeida Numan, Fatima Abdallah and Ismail Kalol were arrested when the Sudanese military were unable to arrest the youth who argued with soldiers on Thursday.

A lawyer has objected to the detention of the three, on the grounds that the Sudanese constitution states to notify each person upon his or her arrest of the reasons. Osman Mohamed Ahmed also told Radio Dabanga that activists in the area warned people of “the explosive situation” following the arrests, and called on local authorities to release the detainees.

Detention period

Following a set of draft constitutional amendments concerning the powers of the security service, Sudan’s Deputy Chief Justice Abdulmajid Idris spoke out against the “ongoing arbitrary arrests by the NISS”, and criticised the long periods of detention without trial.

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) carries powers of arrest and detention of people for up to four and a half months without judicial review, an aspect to which NISS leaders recently did not object to reduce the period.