Nairobi, January 31 (Darfur24)
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have released eight detainees, most of whom are students who were traveling from Darfur to White Nile and Khartoum states to sit for secondary school examinations scheduled for April in areas under Sudanese army control.
Last week, the RSF detained dozens of civilians, including students, en route to those areas and transferred them to a detention facility in Al-Fula, West Kordofan State, where they were held in what sources described as difficult humanitarian conditions.
A relative of one of the released students told Darfur24 that the release took place on Thursday, following mediation efforts by local and community figures. He confirmed the release but stated that he had no information on whether a ransom had been paid.
According to him, those released included secondary school students as well as young men who had been traveling to eastern and northern Sudan to work in traditional gold mining.
However, other sources said the RSF arrested eight young men, including high school students, several days earlier in the Abu Jubaiha area near the border with South Sudan, before transferring them to Al-Fula. According to these sources, the detainees were released following mediation by local leaders and elders, after each paid a fine of 500,000 Sudanese pounds.
The Rapid Support Forces continue to impose tight controls on roads leading to northern and central Sudan, areas currently under the control of the Sudanese army, restricting civilian movement between regions.