2026.2.9 MADAD monitors daily arrests of Sudanese refugees in Egypt, warns against rumours
An Egyptian refugee support group says Sudanese refugees and migrants in Egypt are facing a steady rise in arrests, with women, young people and the elderly increasingly affected.
Shaimaa Sami, founder and programme coordinator of the Egyptian MADAD initiative, speaking in an interview with Radio Dabanga today, said that the organisation records an average of five to ten arrests of Sudanese refugees and migrants every day. She said the current pattern differs markedly from that seen over the past two years.
Sami confirmed that MADAD has documented one death among detainees in recent days. She linked the death to a failure by detention authorities to take account of detainees’ health conditions and advanced age. In response, she said, the initiative has prioritised rapid legal intervention for elderly detainees.
Sami also said MADAD received information indicating a reversal in Egypt’s entry fee policy. After a period of reduced costs, security permit fees to enter Egypt have reportedly risen again to between USD2000-USD2500 per person, including infants. She described the move as part of broader efforts to curb the entry of Sudanese migrants or to pressure those already in Egypt to return to Sudan.
According to Sami, authorities release some detainees within days, or even on the same day, once their documents are corrected or their legal status clarified. Other cases, however, remain in prolonged detention, particularly those involving refugees whose residency has expired but who have submitted official renewal applications and remain in legal limbo.
Sami firmly rejected claims circulating on social media that two Sudanese girls died of starvation in Cairo after their mother was arrested and deported to Sudan. She said no documentation or credible source supports the story and described it as “illogical”. She warned that rumours and sensationalist reporting pose a serious danger, exacerbating fear and insecurity among Sudanese communities in Egypt.
She urged media outlets and social media users to verify information before sharing it, stressing that misinformation has a direct and damaging impact on an already vulnerable population.
2026.2.8 More than 300 detainees die in North Darfur prison, local group says
February 8, 2026 (EL FASHER) – More than 300 detainees have died in a prison in Sudan’s North Darfur state over the past two months due to deteriorating health conditions and a lack of medical care, a local group said on Sunday.
The Popular Resistance in North Darfur said in a statement that it documented the deaths at Shala prison in the state capital, El Fasher. The city has been under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since Oct. 26.
The group said the RSF is holding more than 9,000 civilians at the facility, located southwest of the city. Many of those detained are civilians with serious injuries from shelling who have been denied medical treatment, leading to severe infections, the statement said.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The statement also alleged that a cholera outbreak is spreading through the prison, causing five to 10 deaths per week. It accused the RSF of leaving bodies inside cells with living detainees for long periods.
The local group further accused the RSF of carrying out extrajudicial killings, alleging that 15 wounded people were executed last week at a university dormitory after being accused of belonging to the Joint Force, a coalition of armed groups fighting alongside the Sudanese army.
Since seizing El Fasher, the RSF has restricted humanitarian access and maintained a shutdown of satellite internet services. Rights groups and international observers have previously accused both sides in Sudan’s 33-month-old conflict of committing atrocities.
The Popular Resistance called for an urgent international intervention to protect civilians and prisoners in the city.
2026.1.24 ‘Half of my friends were killed’ – the girls returning to a school caught up in war
It had been a normal day for 18-year-old twins Makarem and Ikram when their school came under fire.
Makarem was in an English literature class and Ikram was in a science lesson when they heard “strange sounds” coming from outside the school in Sudan.
Then the shelling started.
Makarem says her shoulder “tilted” as she was struck. Screaming, her classmates dropped to the floor to avoid shellfire and find somewhere to hide.
“We took cover beside the wall and the girl who was standing in front of me put her hand on my shoulder and said: ‘Your shoulder is bleeding.’”
In the chaos, the two sisters, who had been in separate classrooms, tried to reach each other but couldn’t. Later, Ikram searched for her sister, not knowing she’d already been taken to hospital.
Like others who were injured, Makarem was taken to hospital by local residents who drove the wounded by car and animal-drawn carts because there was no ambulance service in el-Obeid, the city where they lived.
Eventually, her teachers and classmates had to convince Ikram to abandon the search and go home.
It was only when Makarem returned home from hospital later that day that her family found out she was still alive.
“I waited for her outside the front door and when I saw her coming we all cried,” says Ikram, who had been in a part of the school that wasn’t hit, so was unharmed.
2026.1.22 Sudan records longest school closure in history due to war
Save the Children International has highlighted an unprecedented education crisis in Sudan, where more than eight million children have been deprived of schooling during what they describe as the world’s longest school closure, lasting 484 days, amidst a war that has devastated health and educational infrastructure. Darfur and West Kordofan are among the hardest hit, with the majority of schools disrupted.
The organisation has issued a warning that the war that has raged in Sudan for nearly three years has deprived more than eight million children of education, in what it described as the longest period of school closures in the world.
As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the “Pen Instead of Gun – Children Not Soldiers” campaign revealed a dangerous escalation in the rate of child recruitment in Sudan, confirming that the phenomenon is no longer confined to traditional conflict zones, but has become widespread throughout the country, taking advantage of poverty, displacement and the collapse of the education system.
2026.1.17 Sudanese authorities adopt incentives to recover looted artefacts
January 17, 2026 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese authorities announced on Saturday the approval of financial incentives for individuals who hand over artefacts or provide accurate information leading to their discovery, as part of efforts to protect national heritage and recover looted antiquities.
The move follows an announcement on Jan. 13 by the Deputy Director General of the General Intelligence Service, Lieutenant General Abbas Bakhit, who said the service had recovered 570 artefacts looted during the war and thwarted a plot to smuggle a large number of items abroad.
Minister of Culture, Information, and Tourism Khalid Aleisir issued an appeal to citizens who have found or are keeping archaeological items, describing the legal surrender of these artefacts as a “noble national act” to preserve the country’s civilizational memory.
“The state is committed to rewarding any citizen who hands over artefacts or indicates their whereabouts with a financial reward in appreciation of their efforts,” Aleisir said in a statement.
The ministry’s press office said the initiative aims to strengthen community partnership and encourage public participation in safeguarding Sudan’s legacy for future generations.
The National Museum in Khartoum was subjected to widespread looting while under the control of the Rapid Support Forces, before the army regained the site in March 2024. Other targeted locations include the museums of the Presidential Palace, the Armed Forces, the Khalifa House, the Ethnography Museum, the Natural History Museum at the University of Khartoum, and the Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in El Fasher.
2026.1.16 Northern state official says Darfur and Kordofan IDPs reach 210,000
January 16, 2026 (AD DEBBA) – The number of people displaced from Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan regions to the Northern state has climbed to approximately 210,000, a government official said on Friday.
Northern state authorities are currently planning to establish a second camp to alleviate pressure on the existing Al-Affad site, according to informed sources who spoke to Sudan Tribune. These sources indicated that the government recently abandoned plans to build a camp in the Um Jwasir area near Merowe due to security concerns. Consultations are now underway to identify a suitable alternative location for the new facility.
The influx of displaced persons to the Northern state began shortly after the outbreak of conflict in April 2023. However, the movement of civilians intensified significantly following the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) seizure of El Fasher in North Darfur and Bara in West Kordofan last October. This surge prompted the initial establishment of the Al-Affad camp in Ad Debba in November.
2026.1.12 Six-month jail term over Facebook post sparks outrage in Sudan
A court in El Gedaref has sentenced Resistance Committees member Ayman Hariri to six months in prison and fined him 2,000,000 SDG over a Facebook post yesterday, triggering widespread condemnation from political figures, lawyers, and civil groups.
The court convicted Hariri under Articles 24 and 25 of Sudan’s Cybercrimes Law for a post he published on April 19 2024, criticising arrests carried out at the Youth House, a building originally designated to shelter displaced people and host emergency response rooms before authorities dissolved the emergency rooms and handed the site to a security cell.
The post that sparked Ayman Hariri’s trial (Photo: Facebook)
In the post, Hariri wrote:
“When the authorities panic over a mere feeling,
the ‘media’ has no role with them
except to inflame it.
The Youth House
The new Ghost House (Sudanese name for secret government ‘torture locations’)
Release the comrades
Aref Abdallah
Walid Mohamed Al Reeh”
‘A normal Facebook post’
Jaafar Khader, a civilian and political leader in El Gedaref state, told Radio Dabanga that the court punished Hariri for “a normal Facebook post” that criticised what he described as illegal practices by the security cell.
“The security cell arrests citizens using armed, masked men in behaviour that does not reflect the rule of law,” Khader said.
The security cell, formed after the outbreak of the war, includes members of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Military Intelligence, the General Intelligence Service, and the police. Rights groups have accused it of widespread violations.
Case reopened after acquittal
Khader said the court initially acquitted Hariri after the first judge concluded the post did not constitute a criminal offence. However, the security cell, acting as the complainant, appealed the ruling, prompting a retrial and the current conviction.
2026.1.5 Sudan court convicts blogger for insulting army chief al-Burhan
January 5, 2026 (DONGOLA) – A criminal court in the Northern state capital, Dongola, has convicted a blogger for insulting the head of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in a Facebook comment.
Judge Mohamed Taj Fadl al-Sid ordered the defendant, al-Tayeb Mohamed Omer, to pay a fine of 2 million Sudanese pounds ($1,600) or serve six months in prison, according to the state-owned “Northern Now” platform.
The case, which was filed on December 21, stems from a comment Omer posted under the pseudonym “al-Tayeb Abunduq.” The comment was made in response to another blogger’s post about al-Burhan’s appearance at a social event during the ongoing conflict.
Omer wrote that “trembling hands do not build a nation” and described the general as “half a leader,” according to court records. The court ruled the remarks constituted an “explicit insult” and violated Article 26 of the Informatics Crimes Law.
The ruling comes amid heightened concerns from legal advocates following amendments to Sudan’s cybercrime laws approved on October 13. The updated legislation allows for the simultaneous application of fines and jail time. It grants security forces expanded powers to conduct electronic searches and seize digital content without a judicial warrant.
“This verdict is a form of oppression resulting from merging security agendas with legislation,” said Mohamed Salah, a member of the Emergency Lawyers group.
Salah told Sudan Tribune that the new legal framework contradicts international standards and facilitates the tightening of restrictions on freedom of expression.
Rights groups see the conviction as a potential precedent for a broader crackdown on social media criticism as the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces continues.
Official representatives for the Sovereignty Council were not immediately available for comment on the ruling.
2025.12.30 Sudan: Inside besieged El-Obeid, the war’s new frontline
War in Sudan: A Trapped Nation (1/6). For nearly three years, Sudan has been torn apart by a conflict between the national army and the militias of the Rapid Support Forces, leaving some 200,000 people dead. For the first time, Le Monde traveled to El-Obeid, a city threatened by paramilitary forces and now crucial for controlling the country’s center.
The city of El-Obeid is hanging by a thread. A long, rutted road stretches 300 kilometers eastward, reaching all the way to the banks of the White Nile. On either side of the battered asphalt lie fields of sesame, peanuts and hibiscus, where the colorful silhouettes of women working can be seen, their backs bent beneath the relentless sun.
From time to time, a military convoy roared down the asphalt. Pickups mounted with missile launchers or heavy machine guns were dispatched as reinforcements toward the stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Kordofan province, which has become the epicenter of the conflict. If El-Obeid were to fall, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would once again be at the gates of Khartoum, the country’s capital.
On this road, amid gusting winds, warmongers crossed paths with those fleeing conflict. Squads of young soldiers raced by, shouting furious cries, carried away by the wind. With their fists raised high, they were cheered on by tea drinkers sitting in the shade of straw huts that lined the roadside. In the opposite direction, entire families crammed into overloaded livestock trucks or minibuses, carrying baggage, blankets and iron beds, left El-Obeid for Kosti, the nearest city 300 kilometers away. Kosti is the gateway to the eastern half of the country, which is under the control of the regular army.
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2025.10.30 Escaping el-Fasher
Groups of gunmen who reportedly killed at least 460 people at a hospital in Sudan attacked in several waves, abducting doctors and nurses, then gunning down staff, patients and people sheltering there, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The attack Tuesday in the country’s Darfur region was part of a reported rampage by the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, as it captured the key city of el-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months. Witnesses have reported fighters going house-to-house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults.
Many details of the hospital attack and other violence in the city have been slow to emerge, and the total death toll remains unknown.
The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal, two-year war between the RSF and the military in Africa’s third-largest country.
The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher. The war has displaced more than 14 million people and fueled outbreaks of diseases believed to have killed thousands. Famine has been declared in parts of Darfur, a region the size of Spain, and other parts of the country.
Escaping el-Fasher
Communications are down in el-Fasher, located deep in a semi-desert region some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Khartoum, the capital. Aid groups that had been operating there have largely been forced out.
Some survivors have staggered into a refugee camp about 40 miles away in the town of Tawila.
More than 62,000 people are believed to have fled el-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, the U.N. migration agency said. But far fewer have made it to Tawila. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp, put the number at around 5,000 people, raising fears over the fate of tens of thousands.
Fatima Abdulrahim, 70, fled el-Fasher with her grandchildren a few days before it was captured to escape the siege. She described to The Associated Press a harrowing five-day journey to reach Tawila, hiding in trenches, dodging bullets and gunmen behind walls and empty buildings.
“We ran on the streets, hiding for ten minutes behind the berm, then charging out, running until we made it out,” she said, adding that she kept falling and getting up amid gunfire and shelling. Her companions carried her at times, she said.
“Thirst almost killed us,” she said, describing picking grass to eat from the side of the road.
Along the way, she said she also witnessed militiamen shoot and kill young men trying to bring food into the city.
“The people dead on the streets were countless,” she said. “I kept covering the eyes of the little ones so they don’t see. Some were injured and beaten and could not move. We pulled some to the paved road, hoping a car would come and take them.”
She said some fighters stopped her, and the group she was traveling with, and took all their belongings and beat the children.
At least 450 people have been admitted to the hospital in Tawila, some suffering from severe malnutrition and sexual violence, said Adam Rojal, spokesperson for a local group that works with displaced people in Darfur.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said people were arriving at the camp with broken limbs and other wounds, and some with injuries sustained months ago. Many children arrived at the camp who had lost their parents in the fighting.
Of the 70 children younger than 5 that arrived in Tawila on Monday, 40 were severely malnourished, according to Doctors Without Borders.
2025.9.16 Sudan mourns 51 youths drowned in attempt to reach Greece
Sudan has been shocked and saddened by reports on Saturday that 51 Sudanese youths drowned while trying to reach the Greece across the Mediterranean, in one of the most painful recent disasters associated with migration. The exact details of the tragedy are still unclear; however, thousands of Sudanese are among the migrants who attempt to cross from Libya to Europe using small and often unseaworthy vessels, with more than 4,000 Sudanese citizens registered by the UNHCR as arriving in Greece by sea in 2025.
A relative of a number of victims told Radio Dabanga that most of the victims hail from the areas of El Usaylat, Dbeibeh, El Ilfon, Kassala, and Omdurman, where the list included many names of well-known families and families in those areas, which doubled the size of the tragedy and its great social impact.
Malik Dejaoui, head of the Organisation for Combating Illegal Migration and Voluntary Return, told Radio Dabanga that the tragedy represents a new link in the “chain of tragedies associated with illegal migration and human trafficking”, blaming smuggling networks that “exploit young people’s ambitions and dreams of reaching Europe through death-threatening routes”.
The Libyan city of Tobruk is the closest starting point for migrants’ sea journeys to reach Greece, he said, stressing that the organization has repeatedly warned of the danger of these routes, but “there is no life for those who are calling.”
Dejoui reiterated his call to the youth and their families to voluntarily return to stable areas inside Sudan, instead of being dragged into the illusions of smugglers, while at the same time sending an urgent message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Expatriates Service on the need to urgently intervene and develop more effective policies to curb this phenomenon.
The latest tragedy, according to observers, opens the door once again to serious questions about the reasons why Sudanese youth continue to die at sea, at a time when the country needs their energies to build the interior.
Attempts to reach Europe
According to figures by the UN refugee agency UNHCR on September 14, a total of 28,000 refugees have arrived in Greece by sea thus far in 2025. The UNHCR further shows that effective July 31, Sudanese constituted more than 4,000 sea arrivals in the Hellenic Republic.
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