A number of Sudanese political detainees were on Monday freed by authorities, a lawyers’ group said.
The development came a day after Sudan’s military ruler Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the lifting of the state of emergency imposed after an October 25 coup.
24 people connected to the anti-military protest movement in Port Sudan and another 39 in or near the capital, Khartoum were released, the emergency lawyers’ committee, an activist group said.
For more than seven months since the coup, there have been regular mass street protests calling for the military to quit politics.
The coup led to the end of a military-civilian power sharing arrangement struck after the 2019 overthrow of Omar al-Bashir.
Further demonstrations were held on Monday in the city of Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum.
About 50 people remain detained at Khartoum’s Soba prison, and 32 people arrested after protests on Saturday are being held by police, said Samir Sheikh Idris, a spokesman for the lawyer’s group.
“We demand the immediate release of all those arrested because their arrests were under the emergency law and as soon as it was cancelled there was no legal basis for their detention,” he said.
Adama Dieng, a United Nations human rights expert is expected to visit the North African nation on June 1.
