Sudan: Khartoum ‘One Big Prison for Civilians’, People Tortured to Death by Military Intelligence

Khartoum / Kadugli — The Emergency Lawyers documented a record number of detention centres inside wider Khartoum, mainly from the RSF, and lamented the “horrific escalation” of arbitrary arrests and torture. Some detainees even died as a result of the poor conditions and violations. In South Kordofan, three people were tortured to death inside the army’s Military Intelligence prisons.

The Emergency Lawyers documented the presence of 47 detention centres affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and eight detention centres affiliated with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in wider Khartoum. These are both temporary and permanent detention centres.

In their report, the lawyers said that the capital, including Khartoum, Khartoum North (Bahri), and Omdurman, has “turned into one large prison for the remaining civilians there”.

Arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and illegal detention in the prisons of the RSF and the SAF are ‘escalating horrifically’ and detainees are subjected to various forms of torture and cruel treatment, including starvation, sexual assault, and even death inside the detention centres, according to the legal group.

The report monitored a series of other violations classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, kidnapping, unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and rape.

The lawyers listed 13 RSF detention centres in Khartoum, 12 in Khartoum North, five in East Nile, and 17 in Omdurman, in addition to temporary interrogation points in police stations and public facilities under their control.

There are three army detention centres in Khartoum and five in Omdurman.

The detention centres are of poor quality. In one example given by the lawyers, roughly 200 detainees were detained in some detention centres in the basement of a residential building of roughly 300 square meters. The detainees suffered from a lack of ventilation and high humidity, which caused a number of deaths.

There are no toilets in the detention centres and detainees are subjected to torture and forced to do hard labour. Detainees were also subjected to starvation as they were provided with only one meal a day, consisting of one piece of bread.

Both men and women have been sexually assaulted, according to the group.

Women and children have also been detained in a number of centres affiliated with both parties, where they were put in the same room as the rest of the detainees, the lawyers reported.

The Emergency Lawyers said that the report findings were based on thorough fieldwork by lawyers and volunteers over a period of two months, in all seven localities of Khartoum state. They interviewed 22 sources.

Death by torture in Kordofan

Three people were killed as a result of severe torture inside Sudanese Military Intelligence prisons in Kadugli, South Kordofan.

Relatives of the victims told Radio Dabanga yesterday that the intelligence services arrested Abdel Mohsen Mudathir, Sakak Nato, and Alaa El Din Hassan El Amin in the Kargal area, located between Delling and Kadugli, last July after the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement took control of the area.

The relatives of the victims received news of their deaths on Saturday and explained that the three had been subjected to severe torture inside the Military Intelligence prisons in Kadugli.