SAF intelligence detains volunteers feeding Sennar displaced

A number of volunteers were allegedly detained by military intelligence agents in Singa in Sennar on Saturday, while they were providing meals to displaced people passing through the city. The detentions led to the suspension of services and assistance to the displaced, the emergency room in Sennar state reports.

No reasons were given for the detentions, the Singa Emergency Room said in a statement yesterday. The volunteers were taken to the headquarters of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) 17th Infantry Division in Singa, and were “tortured and severely beaten, with abuse, and deprivation of food”.

The statement added that the same intelligence force also detained a number of volunteers working in the tent of the Lammat Kheir initiative, also without any reasons given.

“The intelligence service later released three volunteers: Nazem Mohamed Khalifa, Hasan Ramadan, and Bagir Azhari, while a number of other volunteers of the Singa Emergency Room are still in detention.

Displaced

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, about 300,000 people fled El Gezira during the RSF offensive on the state, which ended with its control of the state capital Wad Madani last week.

According to the Displacement Tracking Matrix Flash Alert of the International Organization for Migration, many people, among them many displaced from Khartoum, fled Wad Madani on foot due to the lack of transportation means. They fled to El Gedaref in the east, and to the south, to Sennar, White Nile state, and Blue Nile state.

RSF advance

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who took control of El Gezira on Monday, entered El Giteina town in neighbouring White Nile state on Thursday. Other paramilitary units are advancing to Sennar, south of El Gezira. Residents of neighbouring El Gedaref in eastern Sudan are panicking. International aid organisations call on the warring parties ‘to ensure protection of all civilians’ and warn of a hunger crisis now El Gezira, ‘Sudan’s breadbasket’, has become a battleground.

RSF troops entered El Giteina and filmed themselves at a captured base of the SAF in the town.