Follow-ups: "HAPC" Monitoring Unit,
Date: April 10, 2026,
Human Rights Watch issued a statement Rights Watch Two days ago, HRW released a detailed report on the violations and arbitrary detention by the security and military forces of the Sudanese army against hundreds of Sudanese civilians, along with cases of torture and ill-treatment in areas under their control, while depriving them of the most basic rights of citizenship, the least of which is the right to a fair trial.
The army periodically launches campaigns of intimidation and revenge against civilians, making baseless accusations against them of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces. These accusations are in fact based solely on ethnicity, regional affiliation, humanitarian work, previous political affiliation, or the fact that the accused persons reside in areas under the control of the Rapid Support Forces.
The human rights organization said, that “security and military forces arrested civilians under the pretext of cooperating with the Rapid Support Forces, in areas that the army had regained control of, and these arrests were often based on their ethnic identity, or the perception of their political affiliation based on conjecture, or the nature of their work in the humanitarian field, even the arrest procedures including the denial of the freedom to defend, daily ill-treatment, and continuous torture as war crimes against humanity.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 28 civilians, including 7 former detainees, 9 relatives of detainees, 11 lawyers and activists, and one member of the security forces, in June 2025 and February 2026.
According to the organization’s report, each of the people interviewed recounted different images of abuses inflicted on men and women detained by the Sudanese Armed Forces and its affiliates in areas controlled by the army, most notably the states of Khartoum, Al Qadarif, Al Jazeera, North, and Red Sea.
Most of the accounts from those interviewed were similar in that so-called security cells formed from the General Intelligence Service and Military Intelligence, in addition to militias linked to the Sudanese army, were involved in illegal detention operations.
A policeman who was embedded in a security cell in Omdurman, which is part of the capital, reported witnessing his cellmates abusing a woman in April 2025, accusing her of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces. He described it, saying: “We went in three cars [to her house]. Then two men from the Al-Baraa Bin Malik Battalion stormed the house, armed, and after a few seconds they took her out half-naked, continuing to beat her and slap her face, before throwing her into the back of one of our pickup trucks.”
Human Rights Watch reported Rights Watch ‘s report documents human rights organizations’ detention of women on charges of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces, and the sentencing of 25 of them to death.
As reported by the organization, a 35-year-old woman and her two brothers fled from Al-Jazirah State, which is under the control of the Rapid Support Forces, to Port Sudan in late February 2024. Upon their arrival, members of the security cell in Port Sudan detained them on charges of collaborating with the enemy.
The woman’s account in the organization’s report stated: “I was beaten all over my body, despite my pleas and telling them I have diabetes. Nevertheless, the security cell members continued to beat me with sticks and whips and severely humiliated me by slapping me. I felt like I was…” “I became human again, and because of the beatings and fear, I developed severe diarrhea and defecated on myself without realizing it.” According to Human Rights Watch Rights said the woman was released after a week, without being charged, and then fled the country.
Human Rights Watch continued Rights Watch cited numerous incidents of violations, arbitrary detention, and physical assaults similar to those described above. Previous or worse.
Human Rights Watch demanded Rats Watch the Attorney General’s Office and the judicial authorities, to immediately release all those detained without legal justification, in addition to allowing independent monitoring and investigation procedures in terms of access to the places of detainees inside official and unofficial prisons.
Human Rights Watch said Rights Watch reported that it had written to the office of the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and the Attorney General’s office on March 18 regarding its findings, but both offices responded on April 2, with the Attorney General denying the allegations of arbitrary arrest and denying that there were any deaths in detention cells, except for one case, stating that criminal proceedings were underway, and providing no details about the accused.
The organization appealed through the report, saying: “Parties and regional and international blocs should publicly call on the military leadership and its affiliated authorities to stop the discriminatory targeting of Sudanese society and to refrain from viewing it through a sectarian lens, especially local volunteers, and to provide assurances that civilians will not be detained except according to legal procedures based on evidence and reliable sources, and to commit to the final legal procedures.”
The organization also stated that, coinciding with April 15th, the third anniversary of the outbreak of war, it is time for the authorities to grant unrestricted access to the country to the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, as well as the Joint Fact-Finding Mission on Human Rights in Sudan mandated by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
