With the general elections fast approaching in Sudan, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) led crackdown on independent media and civil society has reached unprecedented levels. Since January 2015, the NISS has confiscated publications from at least 16 newspapers on 42 different occasions. Around 21 journalists have been interrogated by the police and the security agency. A newspaper editor currently on trial may face the death penalty if convicted. Three leading civil society organizations have also been shut down, with at least five others under imminent threat of closure.
