Khartoum releases rights activist

Sudanese rights activist Haidar Mahmoud Abdurrahman Manis was free Friday following months of incarceration for denouncing the military, officials said. The Sudan Tribune said Manis was arrested in March in the Setta Haj Youssef market on the outskirts of Khartoum North by four men in civilian clothes. He was transported in a vehicle believed to belong to Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services, witnesses told Amnesty International. Manis denounced Khartoum's military involvement and human rights violations in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile prior to his arrest. Rebels in Darfur have been fighting against the Sudanese army since 2003. Fighting erupted in South Kordofan and Blue Nile in 2011.