The Al Jazira Observatory for Human Rights has submitted an urgent complaint to several international human rights mechanisms over what it described as the grave legal and humanitarian conditions facing detainees in Port Sudan prison.
The group said 83 detainees had launched an open-ended hunger strike to protest their prolonged detention and repeated delays in their trials.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the observatory said several detainees held under Articles 50 and 51 of Sudan’s Criminal Act had spent nearly two years in custody without trial.
It added that court proceedings had been repeatedly postponed because prosecution representatives and witnesses failed to appear, while detainees—particularly those suffering from chronic illnesses—were experiencing deteriorating physical and psychological health.
The observatory called for urgent intervention by international bodies, including the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan.
It urged them to press the Sudanese authorities to end unlawful detention, ensure immediate medical care for the hunger strikers and guarantee detainees access to prompt and fair trials.
