Nyala, January 05 (Darfur24)
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are holding more than 600 women, some with their children, in the Kober prison in Nyala, South Darfur State, under poor humanitarian conditions, local sources told Darfur24.
A female guard at the prison said the women are being detained on charges of espionage, cooperation with the Sudanese army and joint forces, or providing flight coordinates. Some were former police or army personnel who refused to join the RSF, while others were transferred from civil courts over debt cases or arrested due to criminal offenses committed by their husbands, including four murder cases.
More than 50 children are reportedly being held inside the facility with their mothers. Detainees come from Kordofan, North, Central, and South Darfur, the guard said.
A former detainee recently released from Kober prison told Darfur24 that Kober prison holds women across five overcrowded wards, where drinking water is often scarce, and food rations are reduced. She said detainees between 20 and 50 years old are sometimes forced into domestic labor, cleaning and washing clothes for officers’ families.
“One officer took another detainee and me to serve his wife in the airport neighborhood, cleaning the house and washing clothes, then returned us to the prison in the evening,” she said.
A source close to the family of Islam Mohamed, who has been detained since mid-December, said she remains imprisoned despite being pregnant and a mother of two. The family had been promised her release multiple times, but her health has deteriorated due to a lack of care.
The RSF uses Nyala’s Korea prison to detain women and temporarily hold men before transferring them to Daqris prison. Sources noted the absence of a dedicated health center for women and children exacerbates the difficult conditions inside the facility.