Sudan: Calls for detained protesters to be released

The Forces of Freedom and Change in Sudan has called for a comprehensive national campaign to release more than 200 protesters detained by authorities.

The call came in a statement issued yesterday coinciding with the visit of the United Nations Expert on Human Rights, Adama Dieng, to the country.

The group condemned the Sudanese authorities’ arrest of the Forces’ leading member, Taha Osman Ishag, on Saturday saying the arrest was politically motivated.

“We call on the Sudanese [people] at home and abroad to organise a comprehensive national campaign to release all detainees, who are more than 200 people, including more than 96 people in Soba prison,” the statement said.

“Let our voices rise in demand to stop violence and torture, raise the banner of solidarity with the families of detainees, and demand that food and medicine be provided to their relatives in prisons,” it added.

The Forces urged human rights organisations to meet with Dieng and “to demand that he visit the detainees, work for their release, stop violence, torture and gross violations of human rights, and form an independent commission to investigate the murders committed after the October 25 coup.”

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Thousands of protesters demonstrated in several neighbourhoods in Khartoum, the city of Bahri and Omdurman at the call of the “resistance committees’ coordinators” to demand full civilian rule and release all political detainees.

During the protests, one person is reported to have been shot dead in Bahri.

Opposition forces and human rights organisations accuse the Sudanese authorities of arresting political leaders and dozens of activists in the “resistance committees”.

Army chief, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, has previously said the arrest warrants were issued  by “independent judicial authorities”.

Sudan has been living in political turmoil since 25 October when army chief, Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, staged a coup and placed Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok under house arrest.

Following mass protests, Al-Burhan reached a deal with Hamdok in November that reinstated him as prime minister. However, popular protests continued with some demonstrators saying that his reinstatement was helping legitimise the military takeover.

In early January, Hamdok resigned.

Sudan’s prime minister resigns amid deadlock, anti-coup protests – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]