Sudan Groups Launch Where Did You Take Them? Campaign Against Forced Disappearances

30 October 2023
Dabanga (Port Sudan)

Khartoum / Port Sudan / Kampala — Eight Sudanese civil society groups this weekend launched the campaign Where Did You Take Them? with the aim of highlighting the issue of the many missing people in the country.

Lawyer Osman El Basri, member of the Sudanese Group for Victims of Enforced Disappearance Victims, told Radio Dabanga that officially 715 people have been recorded missing since the outbreak of the war between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15.

Several disappearances have not been registered by human rights groups yet, he said. "This is due to communication problems and pointed to testimonies from survivors about hundreds of people being held in numerous detention centra, including places where only women detainees are held."

Both the army, in particular Military Intelligence, and the RSF have been detaining young people whom they suspect of supporting their adversary in Khartoum and in other places in the country. In late May, Radio Dabanga reported about people held in a 'suffocating cellar' in Khartoum.

The Combating Violence against Women and Children Unit of the Sudanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network have regularly reported on women and girls raped in their homes and in captivity.

"The campaign comes within the framework of shedding light on this important human rights issue," he said. "We need to put more pressure on state institutions and the RSF by continuous campaigns and media work, in order to know the fate of the disappeared and put an end to this tragedy."

He said that enforced disappearance is considered a crime against humanity under national and international laws, and Sudan's obligations after signing and ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2021.

The Sudanese Group for Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Missing People Initiative, the Democratic Front Lawyers, the SIHA Network, the No to Women's Oppression Initiative, the Sudanese Journalists Network, the Sudanese Visual Artists Association, and the Sudanese Tweeters Platform initiated the campaign.

Read the original article on Dabanga.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 Dabanga. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.