Sudan's civilian anti-war activists detained in crackdown

Military-led government has boosted arrests after opposition meeting

Sudanese human rights activist Munib Abdelaziz has been arrested by the government. photo: Handout

Sudan’s army-backed government has detained “hundreds” in a new phase of its crackdown on anti-war activists, a leading opposition figure has told The National.

Khalid Omer Yousif, a former minister and leading figure in the sidelined main civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, said there has been a wave of arrests since the signing last week of a declaration in Nairobi outlining a political road map to end the war in the country.

Many of those caught up in the crackdown are facing the death penalty and torture, Mr Yousif said.

Sudan's war started in April 2023 when a power struggle between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces spilled out into open fighting, with widespread mass killings and ethnically motivated violence.

SAF chief General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan is the country’s de facto leader and the government is currently based in Port Sudan.

Mr Yousif linked the crackdown to the declaration including a wish to see the Muslim Brotherhood, which has a strong influence on the government, to be declared a terrorist organisation in Sudan.

Khalid Omer Yousif says the Sudanese government has intensified its crackdown on anti-war activists. Reuters

He said: “I'm very concerned. The pattern is very clear. Since the start of the war, they are targeting the pro peace activists, arresting them and also torturing them to death.

“Now they are intensifying this pattern. There have been protests in several cities in Sudan and most of them have been faced by violence.”

He said "hundreds" have been arrested adding "it's such a huge number that no one can count them, because it happening everywhere, in every state in Sudan".

He revealed that among them is a prominent young activist named Munib Abdelaziz, who was detained in the town of Magaser, near Dongola, after a speech commemorating the December Revolution of 2018. Protests began at that time which led to the toppling of dictator Omar Al Bashir the following year.

Mr Yousif said the activist “went to the mosque to speak against the war and for democracy” but “has been arrested and nobody knows his fate”. Mr Abdelaziz is facing a charge of collaboration with the RSF, which carries the death penalty.

He also highlighted the case of human rights lawyer and fellow Sudanese Congress Party member Abu Bakr Mansour who was sentenced to death in October for collaboration.

Sudanese lawyer and human rights campaigner Abu Bakr Mansour is facing death sentence. photo: Handout

The crackdown has also included a refusal to renew the passports of Sudanese opposition figures who are living abroad, he revealed.

Mr Yousif said the Port Sudan government’s Ministry of Information and the Islamists who dominate it have been stoking violent rhetoric against those opposed to the war.

Commemorations of the December Revolution were also violently suppressed in several SAF-controlled areas, amid open incitement by officials and pro-authority voices.

“The Ministry of Information has said the country is at war and there is no mercy for those who want to make chaos. The Islamists actually spoke against these protests and some of them asked the authorities to kill the protesters.”

He explained that “this happened after the meeting in Nairobi when the civilians agreed to work together on a campaign to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation”.

One of the signatories was opposition group the Gadarif Resistance Committees, based in eastern Sudan, which led a “wave of arrests of activists in the body”.

Gen Al Burhan came to power in a coup in 2021 , which overthrew the civilian government and restored the wealth and influence of people who had been arrested and had their assets seized after amassing wealth during the Al Bashir years. These included Abdelbasit Hamza, tycoon sanctioned by the US as a financier of Hamas.

Mr Yousif said the current government in Port Sudan is a continuation of the Al Bashir regime and its Islamist ideology.

General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan is the defacto leader of Sudan. Getty Images

“Port Sudan has been trying to hide their real identity since the start of the war,” said Mr Yousif.

“They try to claim that this is the professional army facing foreign intervention and facing rebel group, but this is the reality is that they are the Islamists who ruled Sudan for 30 years,

“They are using the war and the bad situation in Sudan to take revenge from the pro-peace and pro-democracy activists.”

Mr Yousif called on western nations to back the struggle for democracy and peace in Sudan.

“Unfortunately, the so called democratic world in the West, they are so silent about that because they want to appease Port Sudan. They are turning a blind eye about what's happening for us.”