RSF launches arrest campaign in South Darfur

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have intensified their campaign in South Darfur, arresting scores of civilians, teachers, and local officials on accusations of collaborating with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) amid renewed clashes in North Darfur’s El Fasher, according to multiple eyewitnesses who spoke to Radio Dabanga on Monday.

Residents in Mershing locality told Radio Dabanga that RSF intelligence units stormed the area on Sunday and Monday with lists of targeted names. 

The detainees reportedly include civil servants, former police officers, and displaced persons. “They came with a list and took people straight from their homes,” one witness said. Around 70 people were detained and transferred to prisons near Nyala.

Local sources added that the RSF also arrested three displaced people last week, who remain missing.

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) condemned the ongoing arrests in a report published on Monday , saying the RSF is persecuting teachers and public employees under false accusations of cooperating with the Port Sudan-based authorities. 

ACJPS reported that Ibrahim El Sheikh, a headmaster in Nyala, was detained on 24 September after refusing to reopen his school, a move the RSF viewed a refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Tasees de facto government. He remains in indefinite detention.

A day later, 54-year-old teacher Fadil Mohammed was seized outside his shop in Nyala’s market and taken to Daqris Prison. Human rights monitors report that the RSF are using Nyala, Daqris, and Kas prisons to detain people from across Darfur and Kordofan.

Teachers have continued to resist RSF pressure to resume classes under its control since September 2024. Several have been detained, and sources say the RSF is tracking bank accounts of those paid by the army-run government in Port Sudan.