Security forces raid human rights group’s office in Sudan

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) denounces the continued use of illegal violence by security forces in order to intimidate activists and journalists. Such violence muzzles their voices and conceals violations committed by authorities against their citizens. This was evidenced by the 17 July storming of the Nuba Mountains Observatory for Human Rights, by security forces in Arkout, Khartoum.

On the evening of 17 July, security forces invaded the Observatory’s headquarters by breaking down its doors. They broke two computers and stole some documents and CDs before they left.

Security services have targeted the manager of the Observatory continuously ; he has been arrested many times and has been beaten for defending human rights in Sudan.

In other recent news, Micheal Gunn, a 35-year-old British Journalist who works for Bloomberg news in Sudan, said that he was arrested by security services against the backdrop of a demonstration against the Sudanese president ; the demonstration was organised by the opposition at the end of June 2013.

Men in civilian clothes beat Gunn before they arrested him and blindfolded him with his own shirt and then put him in a vehicle with other Sudanese detainees, who they took to security headquarters. Gunn was interrogated for several hours before being released.

ANHRI said,

"Sudanese authorities survive on repression and have made Sudan one of the most repressive police states...[V]iolence and assaults against activists and journalists [are] the only methods adopted by Sudan to silence the voices of intellectuals and to blackout the crimes committed by the regime against citizens. This shows the lack of any intention [by] authorities to take steps toward reform in the country.”

ANHRI added

"The authorities must implement the law and stop leaving it in the hands of the security services [when] dealing with media outlets and human rights organisations. [They] must know that the continuation of these violations without accountability will only increase the...determination of the people to [act] against these authorities."