The Government of Sudan has responded to Anti-Slavery's report, Is there slavery in Sudan?, submitted to them in April 2001. Anti-Slavery's 26-page report summarises information gathered during a fact-finding visit to Sudan last year
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During their visit to Sudan, Anti-Slavery's Director, Mike Dottridge, and human rights lawyer Mohammed Tahri interviewed Government officials, representatives of the Government's Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children, UNICEF representatives, Dinka community leaders and others about abductions and slavery in Sudan and efforts being taken to stop this abuse.

In its report, Anti-Slavery reiterated calls on the Government to stop the raids; make clear that abduction and related abuses were illegal; specify a deadline after which those holding abducted people should be prosecuted; and re-establish a safe corridor through which people held in the north could be returned to areas in the south controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Also of concern was the need to develop special procedures for considering cases where captured girls or women were married into the captor's community.

The Sudanese Government, though indicating our recommendations are still under consideration indirectly recognises that, in 2001, there has been no significant progress towards ending abductions or in freeing all those who still need to be released.

Sudan officials have documented 1,200 cases of abduction. But estimates of slaves vary. In early September Christian Solidarity International doubled their estimates of numbers of people still enslaved to 200,000. Anti-Slavery feels this figure is greatly exaggerated. According to the Dinka Committee, a local NGO, 14,000 people have been abducted and forced into slavery since 1986.

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