Illegally detained West Darfuris to go on open-ended hunger strike

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

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

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

The conditions in which the people are detained are very poor. They reported the spread of malaria, fevers, and colds in the prisons with no available medication.

Among the 207 detainees on hunger strike are 15 minors, two of whom have reached the age of maturity during their illegal detention, the West and North Darfur Detainees Defence Committee said in a separate statement on Sunday.

The defence lawyers denounced “the persistence of the West Darfur security committee, headed by the state governor, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in West Darfur in continuing to practice human rights violations against the detainees”.

The commission said it has submitted a memorandum to the UN Secretary-General of the United Nations through his representative, Volker Perthes, head of UNITAMS, in Khartoum on Sunday, requesting intervention “to protect the right to life and safety of the detainees”.

The lawyers called on the resistance committees in Sudan “to allocate a day of solidarity with the detainees of West Darfur” and on Sudanese activists “at home and abroad to launch a major campaign to force the regime to release them”.

Darfur detentions

Last month, the Darfur Bar Association (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).

The West and North Darfur Detainees Defence Committee, which was set up in cooperation with the DBA and the Rule of Law Initiative, visited Shala Prison in North Darfur capital El Fasher to inspect the conditions of those subjected to human rights violations by being illegally detained.

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.