Woman human rights defender Ameira Osman released from detention on bail

On 20 January 2022, woman human rights defender Ameira Osman was arrested and taken from from her house in Khartoum to an unknown location by armed security officers dressed in plain clothes.

Ameira Osman is a Sudanese woman human rights defender, an engineer and the head of the No to Women Oppression Initiative, a human rights organisation which defends women's rights and advances cooperation and solidarity through collective responses to violations of women rights in Sudan. Since its establishment in 2008, the No to Women's Oppression Initiative has launched numerous campaigns against the restrictive Public Order law, which disproportionately affected women.

On 20 January 2022 at 11:30 pm, a convoy of vehicles carrying around 30 plain clothed security officers raided the home of the woman human rights defender without presenting any official identification documents or arrest warrant. After entering the house, security officers proceeded to aggressively search the house and detain the woman human rights defender causing great distress to family members, including children, who were present. Ameira Osman was taken to an unknown location and her family have expressed their serious concerns about her health as she is partially paralysed and needs a walking aid and medication, which she was not allowed to bring with her when arrested.

Ameira Osmans detention takes place in a context of increased targeting of women human rights defenders and campaigns of arrests of civil society activists in the country since a military takeover in October 2021.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned regarding the detention and the health condition of Ameira Osman and believes she is being targeted as result of her peaceful and legitimate human rights work and in particular for speaking out on human rights violations following the military coup, including the killing of woman human rights defender Sit Alnfor Ahmed in November 2021.