The situation of Darfuris and Nuba outside their regions of origin

This COI Focus describes the situation of Darfuris and Nuba outside their own region of origin in Sudan. It is an update of the COI Focus Soedan. Darfoeri in Khartoem (Sudan. Darfuris in Khartoum) of 10 April 2018 and the second part of the COI Focus Soedan. Veiligheidssituatie in de Two Areas / Situatie in Khartoem van personen afkomstig uit de Two Areas (Sudan. Security situation in the Two Areas/Situation in Khartoum of persons from the Two Areas) of 22 January 2019. The research is focused in particular on the period between April 2019 and March 2021. The research was concluded on 26 April 2021.

The term Nuba is a collective name for different ethnic groups of African origin living in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan or originating from that region. In this document, therefore, the term Nuba refers to those communities in their entirety and/or to persons in the Nuba Mountains or beyond who belong to those communities.

The term Darfuri is used in this document as a collective name for the various ethnic groups of African origin who live in Darfur and/or to persons outside Darfur who belong to those communities.

The security situations in Darfur and the Two Areas are the subject of separate reports, specifically the COI Focus Soedan. Veiligheidssituatie in Darfoer (Sudan. Security situation in Darfur) of 28 January 2021 and the COI Focus Soedan. Veiligheidssituatie in de Two Areas (Sudan. Security situation in the Two Areas) of 28 January 2021.

Since the military coup of April 2019 and the formation of a transitional government in August of that year, Sudan has been in a fragile phase of transition. At the time this Focus was completed in March 2021 it was difficult to say whether and to what extent the altered political landscape will change the situation of Darfuris and Nuba in the country.

This document is a translation of the thematic paper bearing the original title Soedan. De situatie van Darfoeri en Nuba buiten hun herkomstregio’s and published on 28/06/2021. This is a translation from Dutch into English by the UK Home Office.

Sudan has nearly 43 million inhabitants, with around 8 million living in the urban agglomeration of Khartoum. Estimates of the population in the five federal states of Darfur range from 7.5 million to 10 million. As for the Two Areas, South Kordofan has an estimated population of between 1.4 million and 2.5 million people, with slightly more than 800,000 people living in Blue Nile. Khartoum is a rapidly growing city and is experiencing increasing inward migration, driven by the poor economic situation, the centralisation of services in the capital and continuing insecurity in outlying regions including Darfur and the Nuba Mountains. Estimates of the number of Darfuris and Nuba living in Khartoum range from hundreds of thousands to five million. There is undoubtedly a sizeable population of Nuba and Darfuris living in Khartoum. Many displaced persons live in poor shanty towns in an area known as the black belt on the outskirts of the city where is virtually no infrastructure for water supply, electricity, healthcare or education. The Darfuri and Nuba communities in Khartoum are ethnically, socially and economically diverse. The sources consulted generally agree that people’s financial situations will determine their living conditions, including the part of the city in which they live and their access to public services such as education and healthcare. Some sources mention discrimination as regards the issue of identity documents and in the labour market, which leads to many ending up in the informal sector. They mention the part that officials of the former regime who have remained in post play in this. Others cite the economic crisis, the lack of the necessary skills and a network as the reason for the difficulties in finding a job in the formal sector. Notions of Arab supremacy and the condescending attitude towards communities from marginalised regions, embedded among the traditional Sudanese elite and deeply rooted in Sudanese society, continue to exist and, according to many sources, this situation is unlikely to change in the near future. The extent and nature of the discrimination a person may face depends on a combination of connected and mutually reinforcing factors such as ethnicity, origin, network, economic status, politics or religious profile. Under al-Bashir’s regime, both Arab and non-Arab opponents of the Sudanese regime, e.g. human rights activists, critical journalists, politically active students, lawyers, tribal leaders and actual and perceived sympathisers of rebel movements risked repression by the authorities and the now[1]disbanded NISS in particular. It remains unclear how bodies such as the GIS and the RSF are treating Nuba and Darfuris and whether the transitional government is able to exercise effective control over the conduct of the security sector. Some contacts say that political activism aimed at the old regime is a critical factor for personal jeopardy rather than ethnicity or origin. The ACJPS has heard of no incidents of people having been persecuted by the security services because of their real or supposed actual or presumed sympathy or involvement with the armed rebels in the conflict zones since the revolution of 2019. Several sources cite anecdotal reports of harsher treatment being meted out by security services in the districts where Darfuris and Nuba live. Darfuris and Nuba elsewhere in Sudan may be subjected to racial profiling. Individuals are sometimes the targets, experiencing arbitrary detention and being addressed in coarse language, but sometimes an entire community can suffer this, as illustrated by the outbreaks of violence in Kassala in May 2020 and Port Sudan in August 2020 The sources consulted contain no or only scant information about the treatment of returning Sudanese by the authorities on their return to Sudan since the transitional government came to power in August 2019. Since then, hardly any problems involving returnees have been identified, although there are some reports about interrogations, detention and possible extortion of people upon their return to Sudan. It remains unclear whether the circumstances at Khartoum International Airport have changed since August 2019.