A Sudanese non-governmental organization on Tuesday denounced the “precarious” conditions of “hundreds of civilian and military prisoners” in the Al-Jir detention center in South Darfur, where many of those transported there by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after they took control of the region’s historic capital, El Fasher, died of “hunger, abuse and lack of medical care,” the organization said.
Emergency lawyers said in a statement posted on the social networking site
The organization, which has been documenting human rights violations since the outbreak of the conflict, denounced that the complex’s facilities house “dozens of detainees in unstable health and humanitarian conditions, which has caused the health of many to deteriorate and the death of others due to hunger, mistreatment, and lack of medical care.”
He expressed his regret that “the suffering of detainees is exacerbated by the ongoing war in the region, military operations and indiscriminate aerial bombardment,” calling for “the protection of civilians from all forms of collective punishment, while military prisoners are entitled to humane treatment and specific rights under the Third Geneva Convention.”
In this sense, the NGO “categorically condemned all forms of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture” and held the Rapid Support Forces responsible for this. Given this situation, he called for the “immediate” release of detained civilians, as well as “the rejection of any trial or accusation of collaboration or espionage, similar to the trials carried out by the army.”
He stressed the “necessity” of ensuring the tasks of the International Committee of the Red Cross when visiting detention centers to ensure the safety of detainees and to provide legal, humanitarian and health assistance.
“We urge the Rapid Support Forces to fully adhere to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions,” the statement read, and emergency lawyers in it described the detention of civilians and military personnel in “inhumane conditions” as “a crime under international law.”
Sudan’s civil war was sparked by strong disagreements over the process of integrating the paramilitary group into the armed forces, a situation that derailed the transition process after the overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s regime in 2019, which was already damaged after the coup that ousted then-Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in 2021.
The conflict, marked by the intervention of several countries to support the warring parties, has plunged the country into one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with millions displaced and refugees and facing international concern over the spread of disease and damage to vital infrastructure, preventing hundreds of thousands of victims from accessing care.
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