Sudan’s United Civil Forces Alliance, known as Qimam, has said the public flogging of an elderly man in Omdurman is not an isolated incident, but part of a wider pattern of abuse, intimidation and humiliation in areas controlled by forces aligned with the Port Sudan authorities.
Qimam spokesman Osman Abdelrahman Suleiman said videos circulating from SAF-held areas show civilians being beaten, degraded and assaulted in public streets, markets and residential neighborhoods.
He said the incidents point to what he described as a rapid collapse in the protection of basic rights and freedoms, with security forces and armed groups relying increasingly on fear instead of law.
The remarks came after footage from Al-Wadi Street in Omdurman appeared to show an elderly man being assaulted and publicly flogged by members of the SAF-allied Joint Force, a coalition of armed movements fighting alongside General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s army.
The video has already triggered public anger and renewed scrutiny of the Joint Force, whose growing role in civilian areas has raised concern over abuses carried out outside any clear legal or institutional oversight.
Suleiman said the practices were being carried out by elements from military intelligence, police, security bodies and the Joint Force of armed movements allied with the SAF.
He accused Islamist-linked actors of inciting the abuses, saying the same networks that Sudanese protesters overthrew in the 2019 revolution were now helping reproduce repression under the cover of war.
The Qimam spokesman said the Omdurman case should not be treated as a single violation, but as evidence of a recurring pattern that includes arbitrary arrests, public humiliation, intimidation and the expansion of wartime profiteering by armed groups operating under military protection.
He said Sudanese civilians, already exhausted by war, displacement and economic collapse, now face a reality in which their dignity and basic rights are violated openly.
“Dignity cannot be the slogan of a war in which citizens are humiliated in roads and markets, and where basic rights and freedoms are confiscated,” Suleiman said.
He argued that the scenes emerging from SAF-held areas directly contradict the Islamist-backed narrative of a so-called “war of dignity,” exposing instead a system where civilians are made to pay the price of militarization and impunity.
Qimam also sharply criticized the government of Kamil Idris, saying it lacks political and constitutional legitimacy because it was not formed through popular will or national consensus.
Suleiman said the Idris administration serves as a civilian face for a power structure dominated by military and security institutions.
He accused the government of failing to stop Sudan’s security, economic and humanitarian deterioration, saying its existence has become tied to policies that deepen civilian suffering and widen abuses.
Qimam called on regional and international actors to intensify efforts to protect civilians, document violations and hold perpetrators accountable.
The alliance said Sudan’s future cannot be built on repression, impunity or the recycling of authoritarian rule under new names.
