Dr Amira Khalil Ibrahim

Sudan, South Sudan & Eritrea Expert — Human Rights, Political Situation & Asylum Cases

Expert at The Human Rights Experts, an international expert witness organisation.

We provide expert witness reports for asylum cases worldwide, covering human rights violations, political persecution, and systemic oppression. Our reports are trusted by lawyers, courts, and immigration authorities, in full compliance with procedural standards and tribunal requirements in the UK (CPR Part 35, Upper Tribunal PD, First-tier Tribunal IAC PD), USA (Federal Rules of Evidence), Canada, and the EU.

Occupation

• Country Witness Expert on East Africa and the Horn of Africa
• Human Rights Specialist
• Legal Researcher and Academic Consultant
• Independent Journalist and Investigative Reporter on Human Rights

Expertise

I provide expert analysis on all five Refugee Convention grounds — political opinion, religion, ethnicity, membership of a particular social group (including LGBT and gender-based cases), and nationality — with a focus on the following countries:

Sudan: Sudan has been engulfed in catastrophic armed conflict since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, producing one of the world's largest displacement crises, with millions of civilians forced to flee amid indiscriminate shelling of urban areas, ethnically targeted massacres in Darfur, and the systematic use of sexual violence as a tool of warfare. The conflict has compounded decades of persecution of non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile state, where communities such as the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa have been subjected to genocidal violence. Political activists, journalists, and members of pro-democracy resistance committees who participated in the 2019 revolution face targeting by both warring factions. Women are at extreme risk of conflict-related sexual violence across all affected regions, with virtually no access to justice or support services. Same-sex conduct remains criminalized with severe penalties including flogging and imprisonment, and LGBT individuals face both state persecution and lethal social violence.

South Sudan: South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, has experienced recurrent cycles of civil war and intercommunal violence since independence in 2011, with armed forces and militias from multiple factions committing mass atrocities including extrajudicial killings, enforced starvation, and the abduction and sexual enslavement of women and girls. Political opposition is brutally suppressed, with dissidents, journalists, and civil society members subjected to arbitrary detention in undisclosed facilities, torture, and assassination. Ethnic identity functions as a primary axis of political mobilization and persecution, with the Dinka-Nuer rivalry overlaying a complex web of intercommunal conflicts. South Sudan has among the highest rates of conflict-related sexual violence globally, and customary practices including child marriage and bride price reinforce the subordination of women. There is no legal framework protecting LGBT individuals, who face extreme hostility in a conservative society.

Eritrea: Eritrea operates one of the most repressive systems of governance in the world, with no constitution, no independent judiciary, no free press, and no functioning legislature. The indefinite national service programme amounts to forced labour and modern slavery, with conscripts serving for decades under abusive conditions, and those who flee face a shoot-to-kill policy at the border and punishment of family members who remain. Religious groups outside the four state-sanctioned faiths, particularly Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and certain Sunni Muslim groups, are detained indefinitely in underground cells and metal shipping containers. The Afar, Kunama, and other ethnic minorities face marginalization and disproportionate conscription. Women in national service are subjected to sexual violence by military commanders, and there is no legal recognition or protection for LGBT individuals.

Experience

• Prepared over 170 expert witness reports on conditions in Sudan, South Sudan, and Eritrea for asylum and human rights proceedings in UK and US courts
• Testified as an expert in cases involving Darfuri survivors of ethnic violence, South Sudanese political dissidents, and Eritrean national service evaders and religious minorities
• Contributed research and analysis to international human rights NGOs investigating the conflict in Sudan, humanitarian conditions in South Sudan, and the Eritrean national service system
• Lecturer in International Human Rights Law, University of Khartoum, Faculty of Law
• Expert member of The Human Rights Experts

Full professional experience is available in the CV. Please email us to receive the detailed expert CV.

Publications

Available upon request and detailed in the expert CV.

Languages

• Arabic (Fluent — native speaker, Sudanese Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic)
• English (Fluent)
• Tigrinya (Professional)
• Dinka (Basic understanding)

Religious Groups Expertise

All religious groups

Contact Email

info@thehuman-rights.com