Over 500 South Sudanese women jailed in Khartoum
A South Sudanese civil rights activist in Khartoum has said more than 500 women have been detained since the beginning of Sudan’s political turmoil.
The statement comes as the country joined the world to celebrate international women’s day.
Achol Malong Deng said the women arrested were parts of the South Sudanese refugees who have been sheltering in Khartoum.
“Many South Sudanese women have been arrested and their children are on the streets facing a lot of challenges with lack of food,” she said.
Achol said most of the women were arrested in connection with the brewing of the local alcohol which the Sudanese government considers a violation of the sharia law.
Achol said the prisons department has been restricting access to inmates unless one is seeking approval for bail.
“The prison officer is demanding money for them to be bailed out, which is a huge sum of money,” she said.
Achol said South Sudanese refugees were exposed to harsh living conditions including the high cost of living in Khartoum.
She said the cost of medical treatment in Khartoum often ranged from 80,000 to 100,000 Sudanese Pounds, which she said is unaffordable for the refugees.
Achol said most South Sudanese living across the 38 camps in Khartoum have shifted to the urban areas to reduce transport costs to their workplaces.
She said the transport costs are too high, making them spend most of their wages on transport.
The activist appealed to the government of South Sudan to discuss with the Sudanese government and devise means to improve the living condition of refugees in Sudan.
Call for repatriation
In October 2021, the former deputy minister for interior and presidential advisor, currently a Member of Parliament in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA), Salva Mathok, appealed to the government to repatriate South Sudanese asylum seekers in Sudan.
“I advise the government under the leadership of President Salva Kiir to form a committee that includes all parties to the R-ARCSS to plan for the evacuation of those refugees back home,” he said.
“They (IDPs) should be aware that they would be much better secured when they are back in their own country. UN Organizations will have no possibilities to help them out from security threats in case anything happens in Sudan. Any worst situation (Dhien massacre II) can happen again.”
He warned that coups in Sudan could not be tamed and therefore, the South Sudanese government must decide the destiny of their citizens in Khartoum.
“The ongoing coups attempt crisis in Sudan which one analyzed that such situations will be on and off and can escalate further as Dr. John Garang De Mabior said during the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that Sudan, will not be the same again,” he said at the time of the coupe.
Mathok said during the liberation struggle, Arabs were united by two ideologies that South Sudanese were against Islamization and blocking it from spreading to East Africa, and secondly that Sudan was an Arab nation and South Sudanese whom they called evils were not recognizing that they were Arabs as well.
“These two factors motivated Jihadists to pour in many resources from Arab countries to crush the infidels in the South and other parts of Sudan. As we speak, the two unifying factors do no longer exist and that is why the coup failed in Sudan on September 9, 2021,” Mathok said.
“In my analysis, the crisis in Sudan will continue to escalate and my concern is about our refugees who are staying deep inside the territories of Sudan. Therefore, we need to prepare ourselves for the safety of our people instead of waiting for the worst situation.”
