Sudanese army, security forces accused of torture and arbitrary detention
April 8, 2026 (NAIROBI) – Forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have arbitrarily detained and tortured civilians in areas under their control, leading a campaign of retaliation against perceived opponents, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.
The rights group reported that the military and its allies, including the General Intelligence Service and the al-Baraa Ibn Malik battalion militia, have targeted individuals based on ethnic identity, humanitarian work, or political affiliation.
The report, based on interviews with 28 people conducted between June 2025 and February 2026, documented abuses in Khartoum, Gezira, Gedaref, Red Sea, and Northern states. HRW found that detainees were often held incommunicado in military bases or houses converted into detention sites.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces and its allies have led a campaign of fear and retaliation against people they label collaborators,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at HRW. “Accounts by former detainees, their relatives, and lawyers paint a grim picture of arbitrary abuses emboldened by a climate of impunity.”
The Attorney General’s office, in a response to HRW on April 2, rejected the allegations of arbitrary arrests and deaths in custody. The office acknowledged only one case in which criminal proceedings are ongoing, while maintaining that all detainees are held in legal police custody, subject to regular oversight.
Evidence suggests the military has specifically targeted individuals from Darfur, profiling them as collaborators because the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) originates from that region. HRW documented accounts of Darfuri civilians being beaten and told they had “brought the war” to the capital.
Humanitarian workers and local volunteers running soup kitchens have also been interrogated and detained. In one instance, an aid responder in East Khartoum was held for 17 days in April 2025 and questioned about his group’s funding sources after the army regained control of the area.
Despite a January 2026 order by military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to release hundreds of women from Omdurman prison, monitors told HRW that many remain in detention without due process. At least 25 women have been sentenced to death on charges of collaboration.
The report highlights two deaths resulting from torture in custody and notes that many individuals remain forcibly disappeared. International actors, including a recently formed atrocity prevention coalition of European nations, have been urged to press for independent access to detention facilities.
HRW called for the Sudanese authorities to grant unfettered access to United Nations and African Union fact-finding missions. The Sudanese government continues to maintain that international investigative mechanisms are unnecessary as local authorities are conducting their own probes.