Sudanese military accused of ethnically targeted detentions
July 24, 2024 (GEDAREF) – Emergency Lawyers, a watchdog group monitoring rights abuses in Sudan, has accused the military intelligence of ethnically profiling and unlawfully detaining civilians for alleged ties to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday, the lawyers said, “Gedaref state is witnessing intense activity by the security cell run by military intelligence, where they are detaining civilians on a tribal and regional basis, in addition to activists calling for an end to the war.”
They revealed that military intelligence arrested 120 civilians in the locality of Al Shoak in Gedaref state last June, under the pretext of cooperating with the RSF simply because they belonged to tribal components from West Darfur.
The statement pointed out that the army base in Gedaref is holding 70 people, and others have forcibly disappeared. Some of the detainees were transferred to the Gedaref police station after being charged with crimes punishable by life imprisonment and execution.
The Emergency Lawyers reported that the Gedaref Municipal Court “issued sentences of execution, imprisonment, and fines for some detainees and aborted their right to a fair trial.”
Multiple drone attacks targeted military and security sites in the eastern Sudan state, sparking a wave of arrests. Additionally, authorities apprehended several individuals involved in smuggling weapons and ammunition from Ethiopia.
Activists and human rights defenders criticize the trial procedures of dozens of people accused of cooperating and colluding with the Rapid Support Forces in northern and eastern Sudan, saying that they lack the foundations of fair trials.
Emergency Lawyers said that the intelligence of the 2nd Infantry Division – the army base in Gedaref – the General Intelligence Service, police forces, and some judges and prosecutors with links to the security services continue to practice arbitrary arrest under legal cover.
The group condemned the practices of the security cell in all states of Sudan, especially those run by military intelligence in Gedaref, stressing that its violations against civilians led to a state of tension and injustice among social components.
They stressed that this situation represents a threat to social peace in Gedaref, which is considered a major center for hundreds of thousands of displaced people from all over the country, due to hate speech and racism among the residents.
They added: “The judicial institutions have become a tool that participates in such violations, deprives detainees of their right to a fair trial, and issues arbitrary decisions against civilians.”
The authorities subject to the army in several states established the “security cell,” which is a joint force that includes the army, intelligence, and police and has broad powers to arrest civilians, and most of its members are masked.
Emergency Lawyers called on the army to immediately release all detainees, reveal the whereabouts of the forcibly disappeared, and stop the crimes of the security cell against unarmed civilians in the states controlled by the armed forces.
The army and the Rapid Support Forces are being pursued by arresting and detaining thousands of civilians under the pretext of cooperating with the other party, without informing their families of their fate.