A displaced man working as a street vendor in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, has accused an employee of a local administrative authority of forcibly shaving his head and verbally abusing him, according to an account published by Darfur24.
Fath al-Rahman Ahmed Mutabir, who was displaced from the city of Al-Nahud and now sells fruit in El Obeid market, said the incident occurred in the middle of last week after a man attempted to confiscate the weighing scale he uses for his business.
Mutabir said members of the military police then took him to the administrative unit’s office inside the market.
El Obeid remains under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces and authorities aligned with the Port Sudan government.
According to his account, an employee identified as Mohsen threatened to shave his hair and insulted him before several people surrounded him and forced him to submit to having his head shaved.
Mutabir said administrative officers were present at the office at the time.
“I completely rejected it, but they surrounded me from all sides, and after repeated pressure he shaved my hair,” he said.
Mutabir said he returned to the administrative office later the same day to speak with the administrative officer in charge, but the official denied knowing the employee accused of assaulting him. Other workers at the unit, however, told him the man was employed by the locality, he said.
He also accused an administrative officer identified as Abdelqader of expelling him from the office on both the first and second days after the incident and directing insulting remarks at him.
According to Mutabir, the officer told him: “Get out, I don’t want to talk to you. You people from Al-Nahud have made us sick of you.”
Mutabir said the officer later contacted his father and promised that his confiscated scale would be returned and that he would be allowed to work from a fixed location inside the market.
He said those promises were not fulfilled, with the family instead repeatedly told to return to the administrative office on subsequent days.
Mutabir was previously accepted to study medicine at Al-Salam University before Sudan’s war erupted, but was forced to abandon his studies and turn to street vending to support his family.
He had been living in Al-Nahud before being displaced to El Obeid, where he sought safety and a source of income.
The incident has sparked criticism on Sudanese social media, with activists calling for an urgent investigation, accountability for those responsible and a formal apology to Mutabir.
Campaigners have also called for greater protection for displaced people who have been pushed into informal work by the war, warning that their vulnerable economic and legal circumstances should not be exploited in ways that violate their rights or dignity.
Darfur24 said it was unable to obtain comment from Sheikan locality or the officials named in Mutabir’s allegations.
