Sudan

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) have ordered the editors of a sports newspaper to remove articles pertaining to FIFA’s suspension of the Sudan Football Association from membership in the group.

Being a foreign correspondent in Sudan’s conflict zones is challenging. But that’s nothing compared with what local Sudanese journalists face.

26 organizations from the Middle East and North Africa are concerned for the life of prominent human rights defender Mudawi Ibrahim Adam. Adam says he has been tortured and denied medication while in detention.

“Authorities in Sudan have charged Khalaf-Allah Al-Afif Muktar, Mustafa Adam, Midhat Afifaddin Hamadan, Arwa Al-Rabie, Imany-Leila Ray, and Al-Hassan Kheiry with espionage and terrorism, charges that are preposterous and were brought against these individuals for exercising the fundamental right to free association.”

The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) is deeply concerned about the continued wave of attacks on freedom of expression in Sudan. Some of these violations include the arbitrary arrest of journalists and media professionals, confiscation of publications, and the suspension of media houses.

The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) demands Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services to immediately release the eight students who have been detained incommunicado since May 2016, following a protest at the University of Khartoum.

For years, Ethiopia’s extensive restrictions on free speech and political rights have caused citizens to flee arbitrary detention, torture and politically motivated prosecutions. Thousands are believed to have fled into neighbouring countries, including Sudan, because of abuses associated with the crackdown.

Eight civil society activists, all of them employees of the organization for Training and Human Development (TRACKs), were summoned by the prosecutor for crimes against the state on 22 May 2016.

Since mid-April, students across Sudan have held peaceful demonstrations on issues including the long-running conflict in Darfur and the decision by the Government to sell the University of Khartoum campus. Two university students have died as security forces responded to the protests.

But they do. And they pay a harrowing price for it.

“The beating and arrest of peaceful demonstrators protesting a project that would uproot thousands of Sudanese and destroy valuable heritage sites shows the government’s disregard for fundamental rights.”

“The death of this Darfuri human rights defender is a sobering reminder that the Government of Sudan continues to carry out mass human rights abuses in Darfur, as the armed conflict there approaches its 13th year.”

Al-Tayar’s journalists think that the closure is a punishment for an editorial in which Editor-in-Chief Osman Mirghani criticized the finance minister’s announcement of caps on subsidies for fuel, electricity and wheat, and called for the minister’s resignation.

“These two reporters simply wrote well-sourced, balanced articles that drew attention to the practices of certain Sudanese politicians and, for this, they are being persecuted. We call for an immediate end to these summonses and interrogations as they are a completely unwarranted form of harassment that does the government’s image a great deal of damage.”

Most of those arrested are affiliated with the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP), which has an active student and youth wing and conducts public rallies and events.

This mass confiscation of newspapers calls to mind a similar occurrence that took place on 16 February 2015, when Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services seized the print runs of 14 daily newspapers without any explanation.