EPA condemns the withholding of information and the cutting off of communication by the RSF

The Electronic Press Association (APA) denounced the rebellious Rapid Support militia’s premeditated and deliberate attempt to withhold information from residents of the city of El Fasher and cut off their communication with their world by encroaching on electrical power stations. It also denounces and condemns the militia’s cutting off communications devices and networks to practice further violence against defenseless citizens and bans their right to access information and interaction with the world, noting that it is a guaranteed right stipulated in international humanitarian law.

The EPA said in its statement that the rebel Rapid Support militia continued with premeditation and systematic destruction of infrastructure and civilian facilities in the city of El Fasher, and number of cities in North Darfur state.
Accordingly, the EPA denounces in the strongest terms forced displacement of civilians, especially women and children, cutting off communication, targeting the information and communications infrastructure, and preventing journalists and media professionals from carrying out their role in obtaining, producing and disseminating information.
The crimes committed by the militia amount to war crime
The EPS statement added that there are processes of growing serial and deliberate destructive acts by the militia towards the communications infrastructure and civil institutions that provide services related to communications, such as electricity, deliberately, which is considered a violation of international human rights norms and conventions.
This creates tragic situations in various aspects of life, and it is difficult to live in such circumstances.

The EPA calls for the necessity of protecting civilians, preserving human rights, taking into account the lives of citizens, alleviating their suffering, making information available to them, preserving their right to obtain it, and protecting journalists and media professionals.
The statement indicated that the data and numbers coming from areas controlled by the militia by force of arms are shocking, unfortunate, and more painful than they can be counted.
Crimes and damages affected everyone, especially journalists and media professionals.
It indicated that a militia force arrested Sudan TV cameraman Abdelaziz Mahmoud Arja, after raiding his commercial shop east of Zalingei market on May 4, and led him to its command headquarters in Central Darfur state, known as (Alfouj) .
A new number has become in the book of detainees held by the militia, which targets journalists and media professionals to withhold information.
The militia also assassinated journalist Khaled Bilal in his home in the city of El Fasher – North Darfur, and revealed the killing of 13 journalists in West Darfur at the hands of the militia
The EPA urges the International Committee of the Red Cross, in coordination with the Red Crescent Society, to play their role in securing and providing a safe exit for journalists and media professionals located in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Militia, in a way that ensures their protection from all forms of violations.
It promised that it would pursue the Rapid Support and its crimes legally and with the judicial authorities before all national, regional and international mechanisms.