Nyala, August 04 (Darfur24)
Leaders and elders of the Fur community in South Darfur have called on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to release hundreds of their members held in detention facilities in Nyala, saying many were arrested on accusations of collaborating with the Sudanese army.
A delegation led by Shartai Ibrahim Abdullah Mohammed met the director of the RSF commander’s office, Major General Hassan Mahjoub, on Sunday to discuss several issues, including the detention of Fur civilians.
A member of the delegation, speaking to Darfur24 on condition of anonymity, said they submitted a list of more than 750 detainees, including women, who are accused of collaborating with or spying for the Sudanese army and the Joint Force allied with it.
He said the detainees were arrested at different times across the five Darfur states and included traders detained at checkpoints, students intercepted while travelling to sit examinations in army-controlled areas, and civilians arrested during the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher last October.
According to the source, the delegation urged the RSF leadership to review the cases and release those held without sufficient evidence.
The RSF has established several detention facilities in Nyala, including at the former Popular Police headquarters, the General Intelligence Service premises, the Security Police headquarters, a former UNICEF facility, and Daqris prison, about 20 kilometres west of the city. There are no official figures for the number of civilians and combatants held in these facilities.
In a widely circulated audio recording, Al-Fatih Mohamed Al-Dudu, commander of RSF Group 264, said 103 civilians from the Bani Halba tribe were being held at the General Intelligence Service detention centre east of Nyala after being accused of communicating with Sudan’s intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Ahmed Ibrahim Mufaddal.
According to Al-Dudu, the detainees denied the accusations, saying they were travelling to artisanal mining areas in Umm Badr, North Kordofan, when they were arrested.
He also claimed that more than 750 RSF fighters from the Bani Halba tribe were being held in Daqris prison without clear justification.
Separately, Ahmed Hassan Ahmed, a community leader from Buram locality in South Darfur, told Darfur24 that the RSF has detained more than 300 residents from the area since taking control of the Sudanese army’s 16th Infantry Division headquarters in Nyala in 2023.
He said those detained included teachers, civil servants, traditional leaders, and members of the police, army and General Intelligence Service.
According to Ahmed, only about 16 detainees have been released, while several others have died in custody.
He identified two of the deceased as Ahmed Ismail Hussein, who returned from Saudi Arabia in 2024 to visit his family and later died after being detained in Daqris prison, and Idris Mohamed Saleh, director of the Civil Service Bureau in Buram locality, who also died while in detention.
Darfur24 has previously documented allegations of deaths inside Daqris prison based on testimonies from relatives and former detainees. Former prisoners have told Darfur24 that the facility holds thousands of detainees from Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, Al Jazirah and Sennar states.
The RSF has not publicly responded to the allegations, and Darfur24 has been unable to independently verify the reported number of detainees or the claims regarding deaths in custody.