Sudanese security authorities should immediately release people arbitrarily detained since the military takeover on October 25, 2021, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said earlier today in a press statement.
“Security authorities should also cease further arbitrary arrests and stop using unnecessary, including lethal, force in response to peaceful protests,” the release read.
According to the two human rights bodies, from the early hours of October 25, security agents in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, detained at least 30 civilian political leaders, including six cabinet members. On the same day the army also detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and two days later placed him under house arrest. Permission from the military is required for anyone to meet with him while he is under house arrest.
“Over the last two weeks the military has resorted to its well-trodden and brutal tactics, undermining small but important progress on rights and freedoms that Sudanese from all walks of life have fought for,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The military should immediately free all those arbitrarily detained over the last two weeks and end all illegal detentions, including enforced disappearances, by the military.”
The statement said that in addition to arbitrary arrests, Sudanese security used heavy-handed measures to repress peaceful protests against the military takeover.
“Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented unwarranted use of lethal force by security authorities in their efforts to counter the many protests that erupted in Khartoum. At least 14 people have been killed by live ammunition in Khartoum since October 25 according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors,” the statement read.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), a Sudanese human rights group, reported that security authorities detained more than 30 people including ministers, advisers to the prime minister, and journalists, between October 25 and 27.
“Since October 25, internet and telecommunications have been repeatedly disrupted, limiting people’s access to timely and accurate information, infringing on people’s ability to express political views, and restricting reporting on rights issues, including about detentions, especially outside Khartoum,” the rights bodies said.
Among those arbitrarily arrested is Cabinet Affairs Minister Khalid Omar Youssef, who was detained by a group of security agents in front of his family in a dawn raid on his house on October 25, family members said.
According to the rights bodies, under international law, when anyone is detained by state forces and their detention is either not acknowledged or the person’s whereabouts is concealed, placing them outside the protection of the law, this is an enforced disappearance. Enforced disappearances are forbidden in all circumstances.
Despite regional and international calls on the military to halt the crackdown, abuses continue. On November 7, security forces, including police and the military, violently dispersed a sit-in called by the teachers’ association in northern Khartoum. According to one lawyer following the cases, about 100 teachers and other protesters were taken to the military central command’s garrison in Khartoum. Some were released the next day, but others remain in detention without access to a lawyer and have yet to be officially charged with any offense.
“The Sudanese people have the rights to peaceful protest, to liberty and security, fair trial, and many more that the military cannot undermine,” said Sarah Jackson, deputy regional director for East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes at Amnesty International. “Violations of rights by the military should be met with a joint, coordinated, and strong regional and international response.”