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Tunisia Presidential Candidate Zammel Released from Detention

FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator carries a banner during a protest demanding the implementation of a ruling by the administrative court to reinstate three other prominent candidates in the presidential race, near the headquarters of the Electoral Commission in Tunis, Tunisia September 2, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator carries a banner during a protest demanding the implementation of a ruling by the administrative court to reinstate three other prominent candidates in the presidential race, near the headquarters of the Electoral Commission in Tunis, Tunisia September 2, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo
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Tunisia Presidential Candidate Zammel Released from Detention

FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator carries a banner during a protest demanding the implementation of a ruling by the administrative court to reinstate three other prominent candidates in the presidential race, near the headquarters of the Electoral Commission in Tunis, Tunisia September 2, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator carries a banner during a protest demanding the implementation of a ruling by the administrative court to reinstate three other prominent candidates in the presidential race, near the headquarters of the Electoral Commission in Tunis, Tunisia September 2, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo

Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was released from police custody on Friday shortly after he was set free from a previous detention then re-arrested over alleged election-related irregularities, the state news agency TAP reported.
Zammel is one of three candidates approved by Tunisia's electoral commission to run in a presidential election on Oct. 6 which opposition critics say is rigged in favor of President Kais Saied.
He was arrested on Monday on suspicion of falsifying voter forms. A judge ordered him set free on Thursday. But two lawyers for Zammel, Abdessatar Massoudi and Dalila Ben Mbarek, said he was arrested again immediately after his release from Borj El Amri prison.
On Friday, he was released again on a judge's orders, TAP said. His case was postponed until Sept. 19, Reuters reported.
Zammel campaign member Mahdi Abdel Jawad described his arrest as a kidnapping.
He is accused of falsifying voter forms for next month's election. Each candidate must submit forms from 10,000 supporters to qualify to stand. He denies the allegation.
Zammel has said he faces restrictions and intimidation because he is a serious competitor to Saied. He has pledged to rebuild democracy, guarantee freedoms and fix Tunisia's collapsing economy.

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UN Mission Says Both Sudan Sides Committed Abuses, Peacekeepers Needed 

Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
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UN Mission Says Both Sudan Sides Committed Abuses, Peacekeepers Needed 

Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)

Both sides in Sudan's civil war have committed abuses that may amount to war crimes, and world powers need to send in peacekeepers and widen an arms embargo to protect civilians, a UN-mandated mission said on Friday.

Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have both attacked civilians, used torture and made arbitrary arrests, according to the 19-page report that said it was based on 182 interviews with survivors, their relatives and witnesses.

"The gravity of these findings underscores the urgent and immediate action to protect civilians," the chair of the UN factfinding mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, said. He called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed without delay.

Both sides have dismissed past accusations from the US and rights groups, and have accused each other of carrying out abuses. Neither immediately responded to a request for comment on Friday, or released a statement in response to the report.

The mission called for the expansion of an existing UN arms embargo which currently just applies to the western region of Darfur. The war that started in Khartoum in April last year has spread to 14 out of 18 of the country's states.

The reported abuses may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, the mission said.

The fact-finding team said it had tried to contact Sudanese authorities on multiple occasions but had got no answer.

The conflict began when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.

Civilians in Sudan are facing worsening famine, mass displacement and disease after 17 months of war, aid agencies say.

US-led mediators said last month that they had secured guarantees from both parties at talks in Switzerland to improve access for humanitarian aid, but that the Sudanese army's absence from the discussions had hindered progress.

The report is the three-member mission's first since its creation in October 2023 by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A group of Western countries including the United States and Britain will call for its renewal at a meeting beginning next week, with diplomats expecting opposition from Sudan which considers the war an internal affair.