Responding to the news that Salah Gosh, head of the Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), which spearheaded the deadly crackdown against protesters in recent months, has stepped down, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Sarah Jackson said:

“It is crucial that Sudan’s new authorities investigate Salah Gosh’s role in the killings of scores of Sudanese protesters over the past four months as well as allegations of torture, arbitrary detention and other human rights violations under his supervision of Sudan’s NISS.  Resignation from power must not mean an escape from accountability for serious human rights violations.

“The new authorities in Sudan must address past human rights violations and undertake desperately needed reforms to ensure that there can be no repeat of the heinous crimes under international law the country has witnessed over the past three decades. 

“Sudan’s new authorities must also urgently declare the whereabouts of former President Omar al-Bashir and immediately hand him over to the International Criminal Court to ensure justice can be served for the atrocities committed during his three decades in power.”