Marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the syndicate said five journalists remain forcibly disappeared, in areas held by both the army and the RSF, and warned about new cybercrime provisions.
The Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate has documented 673 violations against journalists since the war began on 15 April 2023, including 34 killings, 116 cases of arbitrary arrest, detention or enforced disappearance, and 120 cases of threats and hate speech, Radio Dabanga reported on 2 November. The figures run to the end of June 2026.
The statement, issued by the syndicate's Freedom Secretariat for the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, also recorded 34 incidents of direct targeting and gunfire, as well as physical assaults, looting and cross-border violations. The Sudan Times carried the same figures.
Disappearances on both sides
The syndicate expressed particular concern for five journalists it says have been forcibly disappeared: Ashraf El Habr, in areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces; Musab El Hadi, whose captors are unknown; and Mustafa Fadl El Mawla, Magdi Youssef El Zein and Mohamed Hussein Shalabi, in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces. It also documented the arbitrary detention of Adam Ishaq Manan and of Muammar Ibrahim, who Radio Dabanga says has been held by the RSF for more than a year. The syndicate said full information on detainees in army-held areas was not available.
Prosecutions and new laws
The syndicate counted 64 prosecutions of journalists during the war. In one instance, complaints under the Cybercrime Act were filed against 47 journalists and media organisations, after which 18 journalists were declared wanted. It warned about recent amendments to the Cybercrime Act and to Article 51/A of the 1991 Criminal Act, which bring electronic and media publishing within their scope, and about a new national mechanism to combat cybercrime introduced without stronger safeguards for free expression.
The syndicate called for independent and transparent investigations into crimes against journalists, the repeal of laws that restrict press freedom, and an end to the use of criminal laws and emergency powers "as instruments of repression".
Sudan's Women Journalists Network issued a separate report warning of escalating violations against journalists, particularly women, and a growing culture of impunity fuelled by the spread of weapons and armed militias and the weakening of state institutions, Radio Dabanga reported. The network called for an end to the war, disarmament of militias and investigations into crimes against journalists.
Neither the army-aligned authorities in Port Sudan nor the Tasis-led Government of Peace and Unity had responded publicly to the reports. With few independent reporters able to work in many parts of the country, much of what is known about the war comes from local journalists working under the threats the syndicate describes.
Image: Sudanese journalists at a Wikimedia training workshop under the SheSaid project, March 2022. Hassan Hassoon, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.