Dozens of Sudanese activists have been arrested and tortured in secret detention centres \u2013 commonly referred to as \u201cghost houses\u201d \u2013 by military intelligence in recent weeks, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of those being detained are members of the resistance committees, which played an instrumental role in organising mass protests to bring down Sudan\u2019s autocratic former President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is happening is the political revenge by cadres of the former regime who are in the security forces,\u201d said one resistance committee member in Port Sudan, the army\u2019s stronghold and Sudan\u2019s de facto administrative capital since the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The army frequently accuses resistance committee members of being RSF sleeper cells, but activists believe this is a pretext to punish them for their role in bringing down al-Bashir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Sudanese activists accuse the army of devoting more efforts to crack down on them than to fight the RSF. Many pointed to the army\u2019s rapid withdrawal from Wad Madani in mid-December, which allowed the paramilitary to capture the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the war erupted in April 2023, resistance committees have mobilised to evacuate civilians from neighbourhoods caught in the crossfire, power hospitals and distribute food and medicine to those in need. But activists are now pausing their initiatives for fear of arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, these resistance committees have been cracked down for calling for an end to the war, for the RSF to dissolve and for the army to surrender to a civilian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dozens of Sudanese activists have been arrested and tortured in secret detention centres \u2013 commonly referred to as \u201cghost houses\u201d \u2013 by military intelligence in recent weeks, Al Jazeera reported yesterday. Many of those being detained are members of the resistance committees, which played an instrumental role in organising mass protests to bring down Sudan\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":100165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5017],"tags":[6394],"class_list":["post-100164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sudan","tag-crackdown-on-democracy-activists"],"yoast_head":"\n