The 10-month war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to an increase in killings and arrests based on identity and ethnicity.
These incidents have taken place in areas controlled by the army against people from ethnic groups that form the social base of the RSF in Darfur and Kordofan. They have been accused of belonging to the forces that have been fighting the army since April 15.
The most shocking of these incidents is the “beheaded heads” incident that was circulated on social media, showing a group of Sudanese army soldiers holding severed heads, claiming that they belonged to RSF fighters.
The RSF, on the other hand, said that those killed and mutilated by the army did not belong to them, but were killed on a regional and ethnic basis.
Human rights groups also report that there have been a number of arrests by the Sudanese army of people suspected of belonging to the RSF, because they belong geographically and ethnically to some of the tribes that make up the RSF in Kordofan and Darfur.
According to local media, a court in the eastern Sudanese city of Kassala on Sunday sentenced a citizen to 10 years in prison after he was accused of supporting the RSF. This was after pictures and videos related to the RSF that were circulating on social media were found on his phone.
The Darfur Lawyers’ Association revealed that a woman died inside a police station in River Nile state, while another has been detained for five months, after they were accused of spying for the RSF because they are from a tribe in Kordofan.
The association said in a statement that it strongly rejects targeting on a regional and tribal basis and exploiting procedures under the guise of the law, and announced the launch of a major campaign to support the woman “Salma Hassan” who is imprisoned in the city of Atbara in River Nile state, in an exploitation of legal procedures.
The association confirmed in its statement that it will notify the Attorney General to intervene for the immediate release of the detained woman and to open an investigation into the death of the woman “In’am Ahmed Khairi” in police custody.
The statement said that Salma Hassan, a mother of five, is from the Masairi tribe and had been displaced to the city of “Atbara” after her sister was killed by a shell and she was injured in their home in East Nile in the capital Khartoum. She has been in detention for five months since her arrest.
The statement pointed out that there is an exploitation of legal procedures against the two women, saying that there are clear indications that the Central Investigations have not yet investigated any criminal cases regarding the deceased In’am Ahmed Khairi and the imprisoned Salma Hassan.
There is also no evidence for the Public Prosecution, otherwise it would have proceeded to transfer the complaint to the judiciary and not just renewed the detention, without conducting serious investigations despite the seriousness of the criminal charges opened against her.
The human rights association announced that it will proceed to notify the Attorney General of these abuses and serious violations and exploitation of the law by filing criminal proceedings for cases that have no basis, under the provisions of Articles 51 and 52 of the Criminal Code of 1991 “undermining the constitutional system and spying for the Rapid Support Forces”.
