As Sudan’s brutal civil war enters its second year, Human Rights Watch has issued a sharp new report accusing the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of systematically rounding up civilians—particularly young men—in areas under military control, detaining them without charge, and in some cases subjecting them to torture and enforced disappearance. The report, based on interviews with 87 survivors and witnesses conducted between December 2025 and March 2026, paints a picture of a state apparatus using mass arbitrary detention as a tool of social control in territories it cannot fully hold militarily.
The SAF has denied the allegations, calling them fabrications designed to tarnish the reputation of the armed forces at a time of existential conflict. But the report’s findings align closely with accounts from other human rights organisations, UN monitors, and journalists operating in or near SAF-controlled areas.
**The Scale of the Crackdown**
Human Rights Watch documented at least 340 cases of apparently arbitrary detention by SAF forces between September 2025 and March 2026, with the true figure almost certainly higher given the difficulties of gathering testimony from active conflict zones. The majority of those detained were men between the ages of 18 and 35—the demographic most likely to be associated with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group or with anti-government protest movements that preceded the war.
Detention facilities identified in the report include three sites in Omdurman, two in Port Sudan—which has become the de facto capital of the SAF-aligned transitional government—and at least one facility in the contested city of El Fasher, where fighting with RSF forces has been heaviest.
Perhaps most disturbing are the testimonies describing conditions inside these facilities. They held us in a room with no windows, no food for three days, and guards who told us we would be shot if we complained, one witness, a 24-year-old teacher from Omdurman, told HRW researchers. The witness said he was eventually released after a local tribal elder intervened—but that 11 others held alongside him remained in custody without explanation.
**The War the Detentions Cannot Hide**
The arbitrary detentions are occurring against the backdrop of a war that has defied all attempts at resolution. The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 when RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (known as Hemedti) moved to seize power from the Sudanese Armed Forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced more than 12 million—the largest displacement crisis in the world today.
Repeated ceasefire agreements brokered by the African Union, Saudi Arabia, and the United States have collapsed within days of signing. The most recent attempt, in January 2026, broke down over disagreements about the integration of RSF forces into the regular army—a key sticking point that both sides appear unwilling to concede.
Into this void steps the arbitrary detention programme. Human Rights Watch argues that the pattern of detentions is consistent not with security screening—a legitimate practice during civil wars—but with a deliberate campaign to intimidate civilian populations in SAF-controlled areas and to eliminate potential sources of support for the RSF or for popular resistance.
**International Response: Condemnation Without Consequence**
The HRW report has drawn condemnation from the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations mission in Sudan. But observers note that condemnation without targeted sanctions has done little to change behaviour on the ground. The US State Department imposed limited sanctions on RSF commanders in 2024 but has not applied equivalent pressure on SAF officers implicated in abuses.
China, Sudan’s largest trading partner and a key arms supplier to the SAF, has blocked two UN Security Council attempts to impose an arms embargo on warring parties. Russia’s Wagner successor group—now officially integrated into the Russian Ministry of Defence as Africa Corps—has deployed fighters in support of the SAF in several battles, according to Western intelligence assessments.
African institutions have been equally paralysed. The African Union’s attempts at mediation have been hampered by deep divisions among member states over which faction to support, with Egypt and the UAE pursuing competing geopolitical agendas that have muddied the diplomatic waters.
**What Comes Next**
Human Rights Watch has called on the SAF to immediately release all arbitrarily detained civilians, to allow independent monitors access to detention facilities, and to refer cases of torture and enforced disappearance to civilian judicial authorities. The report also urges the UN Human Rights Council to establish a dedicated investigative mechanism for Sudan—a step that would mirror the bodies created for Ukraine, Myanmar, and Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict.
Whether any of these calls will translate into action is deeply uncertain. In the meantime, families of the detained continue to gather outside military installations, holding photographs of their loved ones and begging for information. The war has no end in sight. The detention machine, HRW makes clear, is running in parallel—and with it the quiet destruction of lives that may never be counted.