Sudanese civil society groups launch campaign for release of detained activist

January 10, 2026 (KHARTOUM) – More than a dozen Sudanese civil-society organisations, lawyers’ associations and press unions announced a nationwide campaign on Friday calling for the immediate release of activist Muneib Abdel-Aziz, who was arrested in the northern town of Maqasar last month.

Abdel-Aziz, 34, was detained by state security agents at his home on Dec. 19, days after he addressed a public gathering to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2018 uprising that toppled long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir, witnesses and his family told Sudan Tribune.

Campaign organisers said in a joint statement they would use “legal petitions, media outreach and peaceful protest” to press authorities to free the activist and to highlight what they described as a widening pattern of arbitrary arrests of opposition figures.

“The case exemplifies how emergency provisions and criminal statutes are being weaponised to silence dissent,” the statement said, citing what it called “fabricated charges” under Sudan’s 1991 penal code.

Northern State police did not respond to Sudan Tribune requests for comment on the detention or the allegations.

The campaign is the first coordinated civil-rights push since Sudan’s military-led government extended emergency powers in October, a move critics say has eroded gains made after Bashir’s fall.

Abdel-Aziz’s next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 14 in Dongola, his lawyers said.