Sudan’s Congress Party on Thursday condemned what it called “systematic arrests and unfair trials” targeting its members and other pro-revolution activists by the Port Sudan SAF junta and allied security organs, including military intelligence, the General Intelligence Service and remnants of the former ruling Islamist network.
In a statement, the party said the campaign has run since the outbreak of war on April 15, 2024, using the conflict as cover to roll back the December Revolution and pursue those involved in it. It accused Port Sudan of carrying out unlawful detentions and fabricating charges such as “collaboration with the Rapid Support Forces” and “undermining the constitutional order.”
The party said arrests had swept up its cadres in El Obeid, Sennar, Singa and Khartoum North, alleging detainees were facing systematic abuse and likening conditions to the former regime’s “ghost houses.” It added that the whereabouts of many detainees remained unknown to families and party officials.
Citing what it called “patterned crimes,” the statement referenced the killing of Salah al-Tayeb, the party’s local leader in al-Qurashi, who it said died after being detained by SAF military intelligence on April 17, 2024. It also condemned a Sennar court’s death sentence against party member Bakri Mansour on similar “fabricated” charges following an appeal of an earlier life term, saying the ruling was issued at a session for which the defense lawyer—detained five days earlier—was not notified.
The party linked the practices to what it described as a full re-empowerment of the former National Congress Party and Islamist figures across the justice sector, from the justice minister and constitutional court chief to judges “seconded” to handle cases against opposition activists. It named Judge Ali Abdel Latif as having issued the death sentence against Mansour and called the trend “blatant politicization” of the judiciary.
The Congress Party said it rejects these “organized crimes” and will oppose them by all lawful political, legal and popular means. It held the Port Sudan authorities and their security and judicial arms fully responsible for the lives and safety of all detainees, warning that continued repression would only harden public resolve to resist. Its legal and human rights organs, it added, will document abuses and escalate them to regional and international bodies to ensure accountability for those it described as war criminals.
