Command Responsibility Cannot Be Imprisoned

By – Ali Khalil – Arab Telegraph

The issue of detention facilities run by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is not a matter of isolated misconduct or unverified allegations. It reflects a documented pattern of arbitrary detention and serious abuses for which leadership bears responsibility under international law.

Under the doctrine of command responsibility, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), as the RSF’s commander, along with senior field and administrative leaders, carries political and legal responsibility for violations committed by forces under their control—whether ordered directly or allowed to continue with knowledge and without prevention.

This is not about individual excesses. Human rights reports and survivor testimonies point to widespread arbitrary detention, torture, denial of medical care, and incommunicado confinement. If established, such acts may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, particularly when carried out on a large scale or as a systematic practice.

Responsibility does not stop with the direct perpetrator. Any commander who had the authority to prevent abuses and failed to do so, or to punish perpetrators and did not, shares responsibility. Political actors who provide cover—or choose silence—also bear moral, and potentially legal, accountability.

Arab Telegraph does not issue verdicts. But it does name realities plainly:
Secret prisons are not a secondary issue. Those who control the forces operating them have an immediate obligation to open facilities to independent monitoring, grant access to the ICRC and UN mechanisms, release arbitrarily detained civilians, or ensure transparent legal processes.

History shows that crimes committed in the dark rarely remain hidden.
Those who rely on amnesia often discover that international memory is long.