Security forces in Unity state this weekend arrested 15 northern traders, taking them to unknown locations on the pretext that they were ‘cooperating with Khartoum.’

A driver who works with one of the detained men said that they were initially arrested in Abiemnhom in north-west Unity and then transferred to Aneit in the southern Abyei region, then onward to Aweil in Northern Bahr el Ghazal.

“When we went to Aweil they did not give us any information up until now,” said the driver.

He added that all of the traders’ phones have been closed off, expressing fear that the traders could be tortured and appealing to the authorities concerned to release them.