Sudan woman human rights defender Ameira Osman was arrested in January 20and taken from her house in Khartoum to an unknown location by armed security officers dressed in plain clothes.
She is an engineer and the head of the No to Women Oppression Initiative, a human rights organisation which defends women’s rights and advances cooperation and solidarity through collective responses to violations of women rights in Sudan. Since its establishment in 2008, the No to Women’s Oppression Initiative has launched numerous campaigns against the restrictive Public Order law, which disproportionately affected women.
January 202 at 11:30 pm, a convoy of vehicles carrying around 30 plain clothed security officers raided the home of Ameira Osman, without presenting any official identification documents or arrest warrant. After entering the house, security officers proceeded to aggressively search the house and detained her causing great distress to family members, including children, who were present.
Ameira Osman was taken to an unknown location and her family have expressed their serious concerns about her health as she is partially paralysed and needs a walking aid and medication, which she was not allowed to bring with her when arrested.
Ameira Osmans detention takes place in a context of increased targeting of women human rights defenders and campaigns of arrests of civil society activists in the country since a military takeover in October 2021.
Front Line Defenders(FLD) expressed deep concern regarding the detention and the health condition of Ameira Osman and believes she is being targeted as result of her peaceful and legitimate human rights work and in particular for speaking out on human rights violations following the military coup, including the killing of woman human rights defender Sit Alnfor Ahmed in November 2021.
FLD urged Sudan authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ameira Osman as Front Line Defenders believes that she is being held solely as a result of her legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights
It also sought to inform Ameira Osman’s family and lawyer of the location of her detention, and allow them immediate and unfettered access to her. It seeks to guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Sudan are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
