The IPI global network is deeply concerned by reports that journalist Muammar Ibrahim has been detained by Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). We call for his immediate release.
As the RSF takes control of key areas of the besieged city of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, amid Sudan’s ongoing civil war, the security situation for civilians on the ground has become increasingly dangerous.
On October 26, as freelance journalist Muammar Ibrahim sought to flee the city for his own safety, he was reportedly detained by RSF forces. In videos circulated on social media after Ibrahim’s capture, the journalist appears surrounded by RSF fighters.
Ibrahim, a recent contributor to Al Jazeera, is known as one of the only journalists on the ground in El-Fasher willing to continue working, despite an intensifying humanitarian crisis and rapidly deteriorating security conditions as RSF’s nearly 18-month siege of the city comes to a head.
A statement from the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate following Ibrahim’s capture called for his “immediate and unconditional release,” and expressed concern about an impending media blackout in El-Fasher as satellite communications networks are disrupted.
Since the beginning of Sudan’s civil war in April 2023, both warring parties – the RSF and Sudan’s national army (the SAF) – have repeatedly targeted the press. In July 2025, journalist El-Rashid Mohamed Haroun was arrested and imprisoned by RSF soldiers while reporting in West Darfur.
In June 2025, freelance photojournalist Al-Shykh Al-Samany Saadaldyn was killed in an RSF drone attack. At least a dozen journalists have been killed over the course of the conflict, according to IPI monitoring.