Another Human Rights Activist Abducted in Sudan

While conflict in Darfur and South Sudan occasionally  ...the brutal tactics of day-to-day rule by Sudanese security forces tend to escape the spotlight. Intimidation of Sudanese human rights activists is rampant and virtually unchecked, with a particular rise in arbitrary arrests and disappearances documented over the last year.

Darfuri human rights activist Abdelmageed Saleh was abducted in Khartoum on Sunday afternoon. According to Darfuri activist Mohamed Suleiman, Saleh bought attention to indiscriminate atrocities committed against Darfuris following a rebel attack near Khartoum in 2008, aided a women's group at the University of Khartoum following an attack by government supporters, and assisted the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Sudanese human rights defenders have particularly suffered since the ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in March -- anyone suspected of involvement with the Court, including international humanitarian organizations, fell under even more intense scrutiny than before. Numerous activists have fled Sudan in the months since. The newly-formed African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies documents the overall human rights situation in Sudan, including the plight and flight of the country's activists.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended civil war between North and South Sudan in 2005, includes provisions for taking the heat off of human rights activists --- provisions which, like many others, have yet to be implemented. The international community, and (ahem) the United States first and foremost, has neglected these provisions for far too long, and at the expense of Sudanese activists fighting for the best interest of the Sudanese people.  Perhaps accountability for human rights-oriented reforms should be discussed before, for instance, further talk of rolling back sanctions.