Vanishing returns: Sudan’s ‘disappearing’ crisis
Thousands of people have gone missing without a trace in Sudan’s war, exacerbating a decades-old pattern that leaves their families trapped between hope and despair.
Eisa Dafallah
Sulafa Mohammed Ahmed Khalil hasn’t seen her brother Othman Mohammed in nine months. The 42-year-old disappeared on 19 December 2024, during a visit to comfort neighbours after a rocket hit their house. “Since his disappearance, we haven’t tasted joy,” says Khalil. “Sadness hovers over our house.”
Mohammed left behind two daughters and a pregnant wife. His youngest daughter has never seen her father. She was born after his disappearance.
The family’s search has taken them across displacement camps and hospitals, following every rumour and lead. Someone claimed to have seen him at Zamzam camp, which they searched exhaustively. They found nothing.
Their experience is far from unique.
In August, the International Committee of the Red Cross identified the conflict in Sudan as the main reason it is receiving many more requests to locate missing people. In 2024, the charity recorded more than 7,700 requests to help to locate people missing in Sudan’s conflict, a 52% increase compared to 2023. “This figure represents just a small fraction of those who have disappeared,” says Patrick Youssef, the Africa director. “Our teams are receiving hundreds of messages, emails and calls from people looking for their loved ones.”
Not all the missing are taken by belligerents in the conflict. But many are.
After the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) liberated Khartoum state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in May 2024, dozens of civilians were arrested on charges of collaboration. Tabian Othman’s brother disappeared on 3 August from Omdurman. She filed a police report and has searched hospitals and prisons, to no avail.
If he were taken to the SAF detention centres, a good outcome is unlikely. “The conditions inside are reportedly horrific. Many of the missing have died in custody,” says Abeer Suleiman, a spokesperson for the Sudan Missing Persons Initiative. Families often learn of the death of their relatives in detention only when fellow detainees are released.
Like the SAF, the RSF “disappears” people it suspects of spying for government forces.
Rami Sami Mohammed’s uncle, Issam Mohammed al-Radi, a mechanic in his sixties who maintained trucks for a gold-prospecting company, disappeared in June after RSF forces took control of the strategic triangle border area between Libya, Egypt and Sudan.
Al-Radi suffers from age-related health problems requiring continuous medical care, so his nephew fears for his life if he is in captivity.
Even before this current war, forced disappearance was not uncommon in Sudan. Dozens of families are still searching for relatives who went missing during the December 2018 protests and on 3 June 2019, when the army dispersed a sit-in at its general command.
Before that, hundreds of political dissidents disappeared during Omar al-Bashir’s rule (1989-2019). “We have cases of enforced disappearance dating back to 1989 whose fate remains unknown,” says Othman al-Basri, a human rights lawyer.
Because ruling authorities have often been involved in disappearing people, they keep little to no official records on the disappeared. This is why volunteers in the Sudan Missing Persons Initiative are documenting the details – and the fates, if possible – of people who have been forcibly disappeared.
Without such documentation, families like Khalil’s are left without closure.
“Not knowing is the cruellest part,” Khalil says, tears streaming down her face. “When someone dies, that’s a known fate. But forced disappearance is more brutal – the family remains in constant anxiety, imagining his circumstances and suffering.”