Hundreds Missing in El-Fashir Believed to Be Held in Secret Detention Sites

Activists and humanitarian workers say that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia continue to detain hundreds of civilians inside the city of El-Fashir.

A humanitarian worker in Tawila Locality told Ultra Sudan that many of the missing persons who lost contact with their families are being held in detention facilities inside El-Fashir under heavy RSF guard. He added: “Ransom payments are one of the main reasons hundreds of detainees are living in harsh conditions and facing life-threatening jeopardies, as they wait for their families to send money in exchange for their release.”

A female humanitarian worker in Tawila — which has received tens of thousands of civilians displaced from El-Fashir over the past two weeks — said that families of the forcibly disappeared are living under severe psychological distress as they receive repeated demands from these forces to pay ransom for the release of their sons or husbands. She added: “Women who met with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, raised the issue of the missing from El-Fashir, and the UN official pledged to design more effective mechanisms to protect civilians.”