Khartoum must act on abuse by security agents

Khartoum: Khartoum must act on allegations of human rights abuses by the country’s state security service, the UN’s independent expert on human rights in Sudan said on Sunday after a visit to the country.

“I must emphasise that violations of human rights by the Niss has been raised consistently by most stakeholders I met during this visit and I urged the government to take this matter seriously,” Mashoud Adebayo Baderin, speaking in English, told reporters. He was referring to the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service.

“Niss has clamped down on some civil society organisations and prevented them from submitting a complaint to the National Commission on Human Rights in Khartoum,” Baderin said after an eight-day mission, his second to Sudan since last June.

Baderin, whose mandate comes under the UN’s Human Rights Council, said he was also concerned about the “detention of political opposition figures and other individuals” by the security service.

He said he met with government officials, United Nations staff and non-governmental agencies during assessments in Khartoum and the Darfur region, where a rebellion has continued for 10 years.