Sudan: Two politicians missing for six years following abductions by state intelligence services

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Six years after their abductions by the Sudanese National Security and Intelligence Services (NISS), politicians Musa Ali Ahmed Abdeen and Malek Abdallah Abdulgadir both remain disappeared to date.

Their relatives - who were themselves subjected to reprisals by the authorities for requesting information about the fate and whereabouts of their family members - are extremely concerned about their physical integrity and safety.

Musa Ali Ahmed Abdeen, a 46-year-old local government officer from Kaduqli in South Kordofan, was at home on June 5, 2011 when uniformed members of the NISS broke into his home and abducted him.

Following his disappearance, Abdeen’s relatives inquired about his fate and whereabouts with the authorities, who retaliated shortly after by raiding and searching their home. The officers terrorised the family, confiscated some of their belongings, and threatened them with death if they dared to ask about Abdeen’s fate again.

In July 2017, the family home was searched a second time by members of the NISS, and his mother was once again threatened by the officers.

Between October 2015 and March 2017, witnesses saw Abdeen at the Kaduqli prison, the military hospital in Omdurman, and the Port Sudan prison, though the authorities have constantly denied his relatives any information about his fate and whereabouts.

In a similar case, on June 9, 2011, Malek Abdallah Abdulgadir, a 45-year-old member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement, was at home when uniformed NISS officers of the Kaduqli office broke in and arrested him.

Abdulgadir was last seen in January 2017 at the military hospital in Omdurman. According to witnesses who reported this information to his family, Abdulgadir appeared to be in a very poor state of health. He has remained missing ever since, while the authorities continue to deny detaining him.

On October 10, 2017, Alkarama submitted the cases of Musa Ali Ahmed Abdeen and Malek Abdallah Abdulgadir to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), asking them to call upon the Sudanese authorities to immediately release the two men or at the very least put them under the protection of the law.

For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).