Sudan Army Accused of Torturing Civilians to Death
A prominent Sudanese human rights group has accused the country’s army and security forces of torturing people to death and operating ‘execution chambers’. The Emergency Lawyers group said it had documented hundreds of arrests in the capital Khartoum. It said that in the ‘worst cases’, some captives had later been found dead with evidence of torture.
The use of torture was common during the oppressive rule of president Omar al-Bashir. Throughout the current war, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have also been found to have abused and executed prisoners. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in March that both sides were responsible for ‘a widespread pattern of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of detainees’. The fighting has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises – 12 million people have been forced from their homes and famine has been declared in parts of the country. Last week, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the war has fuelled the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years.
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