Survivors of the RSF Detention: a Rebirth to Come Out, or Else Doom and Gloom
Almohagig: Niema Alnil
At the end of August last year, Osama El Hassan, a 40-year-old agricultural engineer, was arrested in Gaza neighbourhood, north of the Armoured Corps headquarters in the military area known as “Al-Shajarah,” south of Khartoum, where he resides. He was detained by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Speaking to Al Muhaggig, Osama stated, “They arrested me on charges of fighting alongside the army, although they found me in my own home, which I refused to leave. They did not find any weapons with me, but that was not enough to prevent them from torturing me.” Osama narrates that the group that apprehended him blindfolded with a torn piece of cloth from his own clothes. They also tied his hands and legs, then placed him on the back of an open four-wheel drive vehicle (Toyota Hilux) that was parked in front of his house. Initially, Osama couldn’t determine their destination. There were several detainees in the car with him. He explained, “We didn’t exchange words in the car; we began speaking after they took us into a multi-story building, where they lined us up in a single row and divided the row into two rooms, each containing around thirty people. The torture began immediately, rotating between the two rooms designated for torture. The torture continued relentlessly for three days without a break, involving all sorts of unimaginable methods, along with severe verbal abuse towards the detainees. They took our phones and prevented us from contacting our families.” Osama continues his story, stating that on the fourth day, they were surprised to be allowed to shower and provided uniforms resembling the RSF’s. They were ordered to wear them, given clean water, and provided with a good meal. Afterwards, they were given weapons, which they later discovered were without ammunition. They were then taken to combat vehicles and realised they were in the Riyadh neighbourhood, east of Khartoum Airport. They were distributed to checkpoints, where one fighter from the Rapid Support Forces, with the most powerful weapons and full gear, was assigned to be in the middle of the group. Osama adds, “We were forced to deal harshly and cruelly with civilians passing through the checkpoints. If we didn’t follow their orders, they would have killed us. The Rapid Support Forces member who accompanied us usually stood at a distance and observed the group. He stayed away until the military aircraft came and bombed the checkpoint. We, the detainees, were more terrified by the sound of the military planes than anything else. If we ever thought about escaping, there were snipers on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, and we witnessed two of our group members attempting to escape but were killed on the spot.” Osama escaped on September 23rd, along with some detainees, from his room in the early morning. It seems they left for some unknown location, and they did not find anyone in the building, nor did anyone come to take them to the checkpoints, according to his account. Osama concludes, “After several months since my arrest and torture, I do not feel well. I have difficulty sleeping. The torture I endured left psychological wounds that will never heal.”
The Sudanese Group for Victims of Enforced Disappearance had previously announced the disappearance of 666 men in various Sudanese cities, with the most significant proportion of the disappeared being from Khartoum State, where 656 men went missing between April 15th and October 15th, 2023. With the assistance of legal experts, the group filed 446 reports of disappearance at the Wad Madani prosecution office in Al-Gezira State. In their report published at the end of last year, titled “Bermuda Triangle,” the group documented a series of violations such as abduction, detention, and enforced disappearance. The families of the detainees were not informed of their whereabouts, and they were not allowed to contact their families. No party on either side of the conflict claimed responsibility for their disappearance. The group had received a complaint from a woman who reported the abduction of her cousin by individuals wearing RSF uniforms in front of his home in Khartoum on August 15th. His whereabouts were still unknown at the time of the report’s publication.
As for the student in his final year of medical school, Muath Adlan recounts the detailed account of his torture at the hands of the RSF who apprehended him on December 25th last year after they pulled him off a bus at the Sabrine station in Omdurman, suspecting him of being a “volunteer.” Adlan says, “I was subjected to electric shocks, and they tied us to ceiling fans by our necks, suspending our bodies. They removed our eye covers so we could see how they were torturing others. They brutally beat me all over my body and head. I often lost consciousness for long hours. If I confessed to them that I worked with the intelligence or was a volunteer, they would stop torturing me. Their recurring question was: Are you a “Bulda” (officer or military in the army) or a volunteer? I spent eight days in a place where they blindfolded my eyes and tied my hands in a location without sunlight. We only heard the specialist torturing us. I spent another eight days in another location they transferred us to. The remaining days, I lost count, and I began losing my strength and talking incoherently. I wasn’t sure if I would survive to tell my story.” Adlan mentions that they were not allowed to shower or use the restroom. They were given drinking water in a large, flat container (an old laundry tub) surrounded by filth, and they struggled to use their hands to bring the water to their mouths due to the intensity of the torture. He witnessed many young men who had no affiliation with the army or volunteers confessing to being volunteers just to make the torture stop. They would then be allowed to shower, call their families, and taken to the intelligence building. However, despite the promise of their release, they remained detained. Adlan believes that the facilities where he was held were previously under the jurisdiction of the National Security and Intelligence Service but were taken over by the Rapid Support Forces. After three weeks, the head of the torture facility ordered Adlan to be thrown out, telling his soldiers, “Throw him away. If he stays here, he will die and rot.” Despite leaving the detention centre about a week ago, Adlan’s feet are still swollen, and he suffers from chest and neck pains. He does not know how he will be able to sit for his final exams, which are scheduled to begin in the second week of February.
Sudanese national law criminalises abduction (Article 162), unlawful detention (Article 164), and arbitrary arrest (Article 165), as well as crimes against humanity under Article 186(n) of the Penal Code of 1991.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 23, 2010, defines “enforced disappearance” as the arrest, detention, abduction, or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons or groups acting with the authorisation, support, or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of the law. Article 1 of the Convention prohibits explicitly enforced disappearance.
The Convention also prohibits the invocation of exceptional circumstances, including armed conflict, threats of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, as a justification for enforced disappearance. It further establishes that orders from senior officers or public authorities cannot be invoked as a justification for torture (Article 2).
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in its Articles 6, 7, and 8, addresses crimes against humanity, including enforced disappearance, and prohibits the use of exceptional circumstances as a justification for torture.
In the Klakla Gubba neighbourhood, a group of RSF rebels raided the home of Mr Sayed Hassan and arrested four of his sons, claiming that their brothers were officers in the Sudanese army. They were not allowed to wear their clothes, and their eyes, hands, and legs were bound. They were placed on the back of a vehicle while being beaten with the butts of rifles on their backs, all while being filmed and taunted by the rebels. Ultimately, they were taken to the Abu Adam police station in South Khartoum. The family resorted to social media as their relatives’ whereabouts were unknown. Eventually, after a month and a half, they were released.