Justice Africa Sudan: Fleeing Nuba Christians detained by Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence officers detained 72 Nuba Christians in northern Sudan on October 6. The groups, consisting of a priest and families with children, had fled the fierce fighting between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri).

The Sudanese human rights organisation Justice Africa Sudan (JAS) reported last week that SAF Military Intelligence officers in Shendi, River Nile state, held several groups of members of the Church of Sudan, who originally come from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, on suspicion of collaborating with the RSF.

The groups, including a priest, had fled their homes in El Izba in Khartoum Bahri (bahri means ‘northern’ in Arabic), following the offensive against the RSF launched by the Sudanese army and allied paramilitary groups in Khartoum and Khartoum Bahri in end September.

The RSF seized most parts of the three cities of Khartoum state (Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum Bahri) when the SAF-RSF war broke out on April 15 last year.

The 19 women, three men, and 34 minors (whose ages range from three months to 16 years), were released not much later. The remaining detainees – 16 men, among them the priest – were still being held by October 10.

Their situation “is critical as we learned they are subjected to questioning and maltreatment,” JAS stated.

The human rights organisation explained that these detentions are part of a large crackdown on people, in particular activists and volunteers, who did not leave their homes during the occupation of the RSF. Most of them stayed because they did not have the means to flee.

The report refers in this context to the killing of young volunteers in Halfaya neighbourhood in northwestern Khartoum Bahri on September 30, allegedly by the El Baraa bin Malik brigade, affiliated with the Islamic Movement and fighting alongside the army.

“We urge the Sudan Armed Forces leaders to protect those whom are being unjustly detained, and urge them to release them immediately,” JAS concludes its report.

Radio Dabanga has repeatedly reported about civilians being held, interrogated, tortured and killed by SAF Military Intelligence or the RSF suspecting them of ‘supporting the enemy’ since the outbreak of the war.

Politicians, lawyers, civil society and grassroots activists, but also businessmen have become victims of the usually baseless accusations by the two warring parties.