Musab Sanjo, a member of the Coordination and Communications Office in the Sudanese Missing People Initiative, has decried the increasing enforced disappearances since the conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.
“Sennar State has seen the highest number of enforced disappearances due to the expanding war,” Sanjo told Radio Tamazuj.
He revealed that 52 men aged between 21 and 69 years old had disappeared, with their families losing all contact within 24 hours. Additionally, 36 boys and 29 girls had been reported missing according to the initiative’s data.
Sanjo explained that most of the missing individuals in the areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were victims of enforced disappearance, with the RSF demanding ransoms amounting to 6 billion Sudanese pounds.
The families of the victims, explained Sanjo, were being extorted, with ransoms initially set at 2 billion pounds, but now increased to 6 billion.
Sanjo emphasized that his organization advised the families of the missing not to succumb to the extortion, explaining that their primary mission was to raise awareness and to liaise with humanitarian organizations and the international community to pressure the warring parties to cease the enforced disappearances.
He also mentioned that they do not communicate directly with the warring parties, but work through intermediaries, particularly the Red Cross, which has significantly facilitated the exchange of prisoners between the conflicting sides.
Since the war broke out on April 15, 2023, the Initiative has documented 990 cases of enforced disappearances, including 95 women and at least 50 children. Sanjo suggested that the actual number was likely higher.
He added: “From April 15 to May 2023, there was a noticeable increase in the number of reports of missing persons,” noting that on May 22, the Initiative recorded 153 missing persons, with 13 individuals returning to their families and three found dead. The total reported cases increased by 220 between May 1 and May 9, including five deaths and 25 individuals returning to their families.
Sanjo explained that the Missing Initiative relies on monitoring and documentation through its social media page, resistance committees’ pages, and the humanitarian emergency rooms. He pointed out that many cases of enforced disappearance, particularly among women, were not reported due to stigma.
“The numbers obtained by the Initiative through direct reporting are generally higher,” he added.
A member of the Sudanese Group for Victims of Enforced Disappearance, Osman Al-Basri, told Radio Tamazuj: “The number of missing persons from Sennar has exceeded 120, due to the long distance to the nearest safe place, the city of Al-Gedaref, and the disruption of communication networks, making it difficult to verify between the missing and the forcibly disappeared.”
Al-Basri reported that according to their findings, after a year of war, the number of the missing persons had reached 989, including 20 children, 116 women, and 7 minors, most of who were from Omdurman, Khartoum and Bahri.