Three independent sources from Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, have confirmed that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have established secret detention sites inside several residential neighborhoods. These facilities, run under the supervision of senior RSF officers, are being used to detain civilians and former military personnel outside any legal framework.
An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, told Darfur24 that a relative of his was detained after an argument with RSF members inside the Traffic Police compound north of the city. One RSF member accused him of belonging to a security agency and collaborating with the Sudanese army, leading to his immediate arrest. The family searched for him for six days before a senior officer revealed that he was being held inside a house in the Riyadh neighborhood, north of Nyala.
According to the witness, numerous detainees are being held inside houses across the neighborhoods of Al-Tadamun, Al-Thawra, Riyadh, Al-Mustaqbal, and Al-Matar. They are guarded by RSF members dressed in civilian clothing and carrying light weapons. The witness added that in some cases, families of detainees are approached with offers to “settle” alleged charges in exchange for cash payments.
In a related incident, a relative of a detainee in Al-Tadamun said that an RSF intelligence officer known as Khidr arrested his sister’s husband from their home and transferred him to a detention site in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood. The detainee, a first lieutenant in the police, had recently been rejected from joining the RSF-affiliated Federal Police, and was later arrested. The family searched all known detention sites but could not locate him until an officer disclosed his whereabouts—yet he remains in custody.
A former RSF fighter told Darfur24 that senior officers had established these detention sites inside residential homes to hold anyone who resists their orders or crosses their path—whether civilians or former military personnel—typically accusing them of “belonging to the army” or “collaborating with the joint forces.” He said dozens of homes are being used for detention, interrogation, and torture before detainees are transferred to the notorious Dagress facility west of Nyala, or to the offices of the General Intelligence Service and Security Police east of the city.
He confirmed that the neighborhoods of Al-Tadamun, Riyadh, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Matar, and Al-Thawra contain the highest concentration of these clandestine sites, with between four and ten detainees held in each house. RSF leadership, he said, is fully aware of these practices, in addition to several senior and mid-ranking officers involved.
Dagress, located roughly 20 kilometers southwest of Nyala, is considered one of the worst detention facilities in RSF-controlled areas of Darfur, where thousands of civilians and soldiers are reportedly held in dire humanitarian conditions, according to testimonies from former detainees.
