Calls for the release of a group of Sudanese women jailed in South Kordofan for suspected links to the rebel group SPLA-N have been made during a seminar at the National Legislative Assembly in Khartoum.

Speakers from the Nuba Mountains Women’s Development Organization held the seminar in collaboration with Secretariat General of the National Congress Party at the assembly and called for them to face trial or be released.

Others recommended that President Omar al-Bashir personally demand the release of the women.  “The government have been releasing hardened criminals so why not these innocent women,” asked one lady speaking to Radio Tamazuj.

It was disclosed that the number of women detained in Kadugli prison have reached 40 and activists have claimed that their continued detention without clear charges is unjust and a violation of their human rights.

Speakers at the seminar also pressed authorities in the region to engage the SPLA-N in negotiation in order to bring the war to an end and promote peace and development.

The Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan have been rocked by civil conflict since June 2011, instigating the flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees into South Sudan.