The Committee for Justice (CFJ) welcomed the findings presented in the latest update by the UN Independent International Fact‑Finding Mission on Sudan before the Human Rights Council, which warned of the continued escalation in practices of arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance by parties to the conflict, and the resulting serious deterioration in the protection of civilians in the country.
The Mission indicated that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as their affiliated actors, continue to commit widespread violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearance, torture, and ill‑treatment, in the absence of basic legal safeguards for detainees, which in some cases may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Mission also documented increasing patterns of targeting civilians based on suspected affiliation or sympathy with one of the conflict parties, including journalists, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, community leaders, and political activists, in addition to cases where civilians were subjected to arrest, torture, or enforced disappearance while moving between areas under different control.
Commenting on the UN update, the Committee for Justice stated that the Mission’s findings are consistent with its own documentation over recent months, which has recorded a worrying expansion in the use of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance by parties to the conflict as a means of controlling, intimidating, and punishing civilians on political, regional, or tribal grounds.
The Committee expressed particular concern over the Mission’s findings regarding the disappearance of dozens of civilians and humanitarian workers, and their continued detention incommunicado without disclosure of their whereabouts or legal status, constituting a serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.
CFJ also noted that the report’s findings on harsh detention conditions inside prisons and detention facilities controlled by both parties—including overcrowding, ill‑treatment, denial of medical care, and torture—reflect the severity of the humanitarian situation faced by thousands of detainees across Sudan.
The Committee for Justice stressed that practices of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture are not isolated incidents but reflect a widespread and systematic pattern of violations linked to the ongoing conflict, requiring urgent action to protect civilians and ensure accountability for perpetrators.
CFJ called on both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately release all arbitrarily detained individuals, disclose the fate of those forcibly disappeared, ensure detainees’ access to lawyers, families, and medical care, and allow independent bodies to visit places of detention and assess detainees’ conditions.
The Committee also renewed its call to the international community, UN mechanisms, and the African Union to strengthen monitoring, documentation, and accountability efforts, and to take effective steps to ensure that perpetrators of serious violations do not enjoy impunity, while protecting civilians from the escalating abuses linked to the ongoing conflict in Sudan.