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Statements / Sudan / 2018 / January

Sudan: Escalating government crackdown on protesters sparks greater safety concerns

Geneva, 30 January 2018 (OMCT) – Ahead of a new protest scheduled tomorrow, Sudanese organizations denounce the Government’s escalating crackdown on civil society in a bid to quash civil unrest and remain in power.

Authorities are using the current social unrest and peaceful protests against rising commodity prices as a pretext to silence political opponents, activists, human rights defenders, journalists and students resorting to arbitrary detention and transfer to remote Darfur prisons. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), trusted OMCT partner organization, reported it also fears those detained may undergo torture and ill-treatment by the Government’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

The NGO is particularly concerned for the lives of the 79 people who remain disappeared after 131 activists were arrested and held incommunicado in Sudan during peaceful protests that took place between 13 and 21 January.

The NISS indeed reportedly violently repressed the protests, using tear gas, sticks and water hosepipes to disperse the crowds, leading to the arrest of over 170 individuals since 11 January, including political opposition leaders, students and human rights defenders. A student activist was killed and several others injured on 7 January 2018, after security forces attacked a secondary school in West Darfur during a demonstration against the soaring cost of bread. A new protest is scheduled for tomorrow, 31 January, at the Al Shabia square in Khartoum Bahrim, Sudan’s third-largest city.

“The fact that these events are going on amidst discussion about the presidential candidate for the 2022 elections by the ruling party indicates that the current unrest in Sudan is trivial to the ruling party and they will do whatever it takes to remain in power,” said ACJPS’ Human Rights Monitoring Director in the report published today.

Such police violence is not new. In 2013 some 200 people were killed for protesting against rising fuel prices . The Sudanese Government has in recent years regularly quashed protests against the removal of subsidies on commodities as part of austerity measures aimed at curbing spiraling inflation and boosting the economy.

The election of the country’s President, Omar al-Bashir, to a third term in 2015 was marred by a boycott from the main opposition parties amid corruption claims. He has had two arrest warrants issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2009 for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Women human rights defenders were also among those targeted in this latest wave of repression of popular dissent. Amal Habani, coordinator of the No Oppression Against Women Initiative in Sudan and winner of an Amnesty International award for women human rights defenders in 2014, was arrested on 16 January and beaten with an electric rod during interrogation. Nahid Jabrallah, Director of the Sima Centre for Training and Protection of Women and Children's Rights, was also arrested on 19 January. They are both still in detention.

The country, which in 2005 emerged from a second civil war leading to the separation of the south into a separate country, also continues to suffer violence as a result of tribes and abusive militia groups competing for scarce resources.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is a coalition of over 200 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and advocating better protection for human rights defenders around the world.

For further information, please contact Marta Gionco, Human Rights Officer: mgi@omct.org +41 22 809 4935, or Lori Brumat, Head of Communications +41 22 809 49 33.


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Date: January 30, 2018
Type: Statements
Country: Sudan
Subjects: Arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Defenders, Police, Military and Paramilitary, Poverty, Summary executions, extrajudicial killings, Threats, intimidation and harassment, Torture and violence

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