Exclusive: Rhino – The General Intelligence Service (GIS) in Sennar State arrested for the second time the preacher, imam and preacher of Wad al-Basha Mosque in Sinja city, Sheikh “Al-Zein Salem Ombada” in mid-June.

According to a statement by the Sinnari Observatory for Human Rights, published on Facebook, the arrest of Sheikh “Ombada” was the second time, as he was arrested last December by military intelligence for more than four months without any charges, in addition to being arbitrarily dismissed from his work at the General Court of Sinja.

The Observatory explained that it monitored, through witnesses and data, that forces belonging to the General Intelligence in Sinnar State, Sinnar city, tried to arrest the Imam and preacher of Al-Ansar Mosque in Sinja, Sheikh “Hamid al-Hadi”, following a sermon he delivered after the Eid al-Adha prayer at Al-Ansar Mosque in Sinja, in which he spoke about the need to stop the war.

Jurists who spoke to Rhino expressed serious humanitarian concerns over the repeated violations against civilians, and called for the protection of civilians, in addition to condemning any attempts to ban religious freedom and involve it in the ongoing conflict between the army and the RSF.

 Military intelligence has previously used civilians as hostages in the cities of Sennar, Dindir, and Abu Hajar to arbitrarily arrest their relatives, which sparked outrage among citizens in those areas.