Sudan: Unlawful Detentions by Rapid Support Forces Format Stop Military Arrests of Civilians, Investigate Abuses (Nairobi) – Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), acting without lawful authority, arbitrarily detained dozens of civilians, including political activists, in the capital, Khartoum during 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. The detainees were held incommunicado or in circumstances constituting enforced disappearances. The authorities should take urgent steps to ensure that the RSF stops acting outside the law, and that all civilian detainees are immediately released. “Sudan’s transitional government should rein in the Rapid Support Forces, which is assuming ever increasing power without any legal basis,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It is completely unacceptable for military forces to hold civilians in custody instead of handing them over to civilian authorities or releasing them if that is not possible.”