
Emergency Lawyers, a watchdog group monitoring rights abuses in Sudan, has accused General al-Burhan’s military intelligence of ethnically profiling and unlawfully detaining civilians for alleged ties to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In a statement to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday, the lawyers reported, “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 Al Shoak, Gedaref, last June, under the pretext of cooperating with the RSF simply because they belonged to tribal groups from West Darfur.
The army base in Gedaref is reportedly holding 70 people, with others forcibly disappeared. Some detainees have been transferred to the Gedaref police station and charged with crimes punishable by life imprisonment and execution.
The Emergency Lawyers reported that the Gedaref Municipal Court has issued sentences of execution, imprisonment, and fines for some detainees, denying them a fair trial.
Multiple drone attacks on military and security sites in eastern Sudan have sparked a wave of arrests, with authorities also apprehending several individuals involved in smuggling weapons and ammunition from Ethiopia.
Activists and human rights defenders have criticized the trial procedures of those accused of cooperating with the RSF in northern and eastern Sudan, stating they lack the foundations of fair trials.
The Emergency Lawyers condemned the practices of the security cell in all states of Sudan, especially Gedaref, highlighting that these actions have led to tension and injustice among social groups and threaten social peace in Gedaref, a major center for displaced people.
The authorities subject to the army in several states have established a “security cell,” a joint force including the army, intelligence, and police with broad powers to arrest civilians, most of whom 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.