Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, has released four female journalists and a lawyer in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, after detaining them for about six months, according to Radio Dabanga.
The five women were arrested at different times after participating in a February workshop focused on women’s rights and issues.
Those released are journalists Dr Manahil Mustafa, Ishraqa Abdelrahman, Mawahib Ibrahim and Zahra Mohamed El Hassan, as well as lawyer and rights advocate Magda Hassan Ali.
The release came on the same day the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, and 16 civil society organizations called on the RSF to release three of the journalists — Abdelrahman, Ibrahim and El Hassan — who had been detained in South Darfur since February 28.
The organizations had raised concerns about the journalists’ health, citing reports of weight loss, fever and other untreated medical conditions.
In March, reports said the three women worked with Nyala State Radio and had been detained without publicly disclosed evidence that they had committed any offence. The CPJ had urged the RSF to end what it described as the arbitrary detention of journalists.
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Magda Hassan Ali had also been the subject of earlier appeals by Sudanese rights groups. In July, the Sudanese Group for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms called for her release, saying she had been detained for months after participating in activities related to women’s rights.
Radio Dabanga also reported that the RSF separately released El Hadi Abdelrahman, a former director-general of Sudan’s Ministry of Education, after he spent more than a year and a half in Dagris Prison in South Darfur.
The releases come amid continued concerns over the treatment of journalists in Sudan during the ongoing civil war.
The Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate said last week that five journalists remained victims of enforced disappearance, with their whereabouts unknown, and called for an independent investigation into their cases.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF has exposed journalists to detention, disappearance and violence while severely restricting independent reporting in parts of the country.
Since the war began in April 2023, journalists and other media workers have faced repeated attacks, arrests and detentions.
The circumstances surrounding the five women’s release have not been fully disclosed. Rights groups continue to call on the RSF and other parties to the conflict to account for journalists and civilians who remain missing or detained.
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