Three Nuba tribesmen held by Sudanese Military Intelligence

On 15 June, members of the Sudanese Military Intelligence (MI) detained three men in El Abbasiya in South Kordofan.

The Nuba Mountains-based Human Rights and Development Organisation (Hudo) reported in a press statement on Wednesday that the three men, belonging to the Tagali tribe, were held by MI agents in the El Omda neighbourhood in El Abbasiya town.

Hamid Taweer (73), a retired civil servant, together with Ibrahim Kalaka Adam Kalaka (52), engineer, and Muamar El Saeed Agoumy (37), self-employed, were taken by to the MI military base in El Abbasiya. Access to visitors was denied.

Hudo received information from reliable source that the MI started interrogating them on 25 June about the case of Adam Eisa Agoumy (35), who is a member of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

Adam Agoumy was detained by MI officers in El Abbasiya on 2 February 2015, on charges of killing a man at Moreib village in 2011. The judge however, did not give the defendant’s lawyer enough time for his defence. He also refused to hear any testimony from the defendant’s witnesses, the Hudo statement reads. On August 2015, the defendant was sentenced to death.

The defendant is a Nuba Tagali tribesman, the killed person is from the Falata tribe. The two tribes share the rakoba customary law procedure that settles murder cases between families, clans, and tribes. The rakoba arrangement is recognised by the Sudanese law courts in order to sustain peace among tribes. It can be considered before or after a court has issued its verdict.

The three men detained by the MI on 15 June, belonged to a delegation headed by Tagali community leader Ahmed El Mansour Jeily. They visited Abakar Belo, brother of the killed Falata, for the purpose of reconciliation between the two tribes. At the time of the MI raid, the rest of the delegation had gone while the three remained for discussing details.

Urgent action

In the statement, “Hudo urges you to call on the authorities to unconditionally release the three detainees, elderly Taweer, Kalaka, and Muamar; Urge authorities to ensure that all of them are not subjected to torture or any ill-treatment, to allow their family visits, and contact their lawyer, [and] To stop or prevent the implementation of the court sentencing people to death like the case of Adam Essa Agoumy and consider peace among tribes”.