Sudan NGO calls for release of South Kordofan detainees

HUDO, a Sudanese NGO dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, has issued an urgent calls to the authorities to release South Kordofan detainees who have been in custody for more than eight years.

In a call for urgent action on Monday, HUDO states that more than 25 detainees have been deliberately left in custody since June 2011 regardless of the recently declared pardon-orders.

They have been kept incommunicado to-date by Military Intelligence (MI) authority. Some of the detainees are Mousa Abdin, he was 38 years when he disappeared, Ibrahim Kano was 43 years, Mousa Shantu, was 45 years, Idris El Maren was 32 years, Omar Fadul was 49 years old, Malek Abdelgadir was 35 years and Mahjoub Abuseleib was 37 years old. Most of them were government employees.

On June 7, 2011, two days after civil war erupted again in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, the detainees were arrested by MI in the state capital of Kadugli. The security agencies and those in authority denied having arrested them. Their whereabouts were not known for a long period.

In March 2016, HUDO discovered that they were detained at MI custody in Kadugli. Immediately after HUDO had reported about them, they were transferred to Khartoum where some were seen at Omdurman military hospital in a very bad health condition. According to HUDO’s contacts, one of the detainees had his right leg amputated, another one’s eyes were punctured, and all of them were half-naked.

Since the ouster of the former president on April 11, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) has repeatedly declared release pardons for the detainees and the prisoners of war whereby the prisoners of war and many other detainees have enjoyed the freedom that came with pardons.

However, the detainees reported about here, have not been released. HUDO confirmed that they are held at MI custody. HUDO is very concerned about the situation of these detainees and calls upon the Sudan government to immediately release them without any condition; to hold to account those who intended to keep them under detention without any legal ground; to legally compensate them or pay damages; to disclose the whereabouts of any other detainees or forcibly disappeared.

Immediately after war resumed in the Nuba Mountains, officers of the MI and National Intelligence and Security Service launched a raid campaign in which hundreds of people were extra-judicially executed, others were forced disappeared and thousands were seized and held in very bad detention conditions.

They were denied any visits by family or lawyers and whoever asked this, was subjected to detention themselves or bad treatment.

Since the former president was overthrown in April, the junta announced three release pardon orders.

On April 11, the former head of Transitional Military Council (TMC), Lt Gen Awad Ibn Auf, announced a release pardon for all political detainees. On April 13, the new TMC head, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan announced their commitment towards international treaties of human rights. On July 3, El Burhan announced a release pardon for all prisoners of war. The next day 235 prisoners of war from Darfur armed groups were released.

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