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CAIRO: The death of a Sudanese who was kidnapped while sitting in a cafeteria has sparked controversy over the scope of a paramilitary force whose members once formed the backbone of a militia that, according to human rights groups, committed war crimes in Darfur.
Bahaa el-Din Nouri, 45, was abducted on December 16 from the Kalakla neighborhood in the southern part of the capital Khartoum by men in civilian clothes and traveling in a vehicle without license plates, his family said.
Five days later, his body was found in a hospital morgue in the town of Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum. The family refused to take the body for immediate burial after seeing signs of apparent beatings and torture, according to Nouri’s brother Yasser.
Culture and Information Minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh said the family met with the attorney general on Thursday and requested an autopsy to reveal the cause of death.
Saleh, who is also the government spokesman, said an initial investigation showed that Nouri died while being questioned by Rapid Support Forces.
An RSF spokesman did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment.
The force is made up mainly of former Janjaweed militiamen who carried out a brutal crackdown in the Sudanese region of Darfur over the past two decades. Human rights groups have accused the Janjaweed of committing war crimes, such as raping and killing civilians and burning villages during counter-insurgency raids in Darfur and other areas of western Sudan during the conflict.
The RSF is led by the powerful Sudanese general Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also the deputy head of the ruling sovereign council. Dagalo was appointed to lead the RSF by former leader Omar Al-Bashir.
Since Al-Bashir’s expulsion in April 2019, Dagalo has become Sudan’s main intermediary, with his forces deployed in areas of the capital and other major cities. Currently, the country is run by a joint military-civil government.
A report by Sudan’s Monti-Caroo news website, which covers RSF’s activities extensively, said that Nouri was being questioned on allegations of belonging to a “terrorist group dealing in explosives.” The report did not provide further details.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which helped spearhead the mass protests against Al-Bashir, called for the closure of all RSF-run detention centers. The association also called for the release of RSF detainees or that the detainees be handed over to the police.
In a satirical tweet, Sudanese analyst and editor of the daily Al-Tayar, Osman Mirghani, suggested that Sudanese drivers should remove their license plates “to force the government to prohibit” security forces from doing so.
Activist Shamael el-Noor called for those responsible for Nouri’s death to be held accountable and for an end to impunity when the suspects are members of the security forces. She said what happened to Nouri could happen to anyone, adding that “this is a serious indication of the inaction of state institutions towards security problems.”
