Statement on the Demise of Dr Albaqir Alafif Mukhtar the Founder and Director of the Al Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE) Sudan
Atrocities Watch Africa and Africans for the Horn of Africa (AWA and Af4HA) express our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Dr Albaqir Alafif Mukhtar, who passed away on 23 January. Dr Mukhtar was a member of AWA’s advisory board, contributing insight and experience from combatting mass atrocities in Sudan to the formulation of the organisation in 2016. We celebrate his life, legacy, compassion, dedication, and commitment to building a just, equitable, rights-respecting and multicultural Sudan. Dr. Albaqir continued to work tirelessly on building a better Sudan throughout his years-long cancer treatment. He was 69 years old.
Dr Albaqir was a giant. He was a visionary who championed diversity, minority rights, and multiculturalism, and was one of the earliest activists to condemn violence in Darfur in the early 2000s. In 2006, he founded the Al Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE), a grassroots pro-democracy civil society organisation that connected to citizens by serving as a discussion forum on sensitive topics such as racism, discrimination, and the relationship between the central state under the Omar al-Bashir government and the marginalised peripheries of the country at a time of extreme repression and when public dialogue on these delicate topics was limited. KACE offices convened and strategised on how to build a better future for Sudan. He faced extreme personal risk by continuing his groundbreaking work in Sudan at a time when many civil society organisations left the country, and KACE was eventually closed by authorities in 2013. Despite these challenges, Dr Albaqir continued to lead KACE’s work in the country from exile.
Dr Albaqir pursued creative strategies to address the Sudanese crisis. He led projects developing the leadership capacity of youth activists, leading to the construction of networks and coalitions which helped to mobilise peaceful challenges to the status quo, fight for freedom of expression, association and assembly, and connect the broader struggles of the country’s governance to ongoing conflict in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile. He developed innovative strategies to reach citizens often excluded from public discussions on issues of national concern, such as youth activists, the disabled, women, and led the development of nationwide coalitions connecting activists in the conflict zones to broader national dialogues. He commemorated the lives lost of martyrs in the 2018 – 2019 revolution through the construction of statues honouring their lives at KACE offices in Khartoum, and championed artistic methods to promote peace and harmony, with KACE offices serving as an art gallery of Sudanese art.
Dr Albaqir was a pan-Africanist, and promoted solidarity and networking amongst activists in the Horn of Africa, developing research on trends in restrictions in civic space and building the capacity of activists from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland, Uganda, and Djibouti through the Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum. He developed programming with Zimbabwean and Congolese activists, linking strategies to address human rights challenges in repressive environments to a continental approach outside the Horn of Africa.
Above all, he was approachable and friendly and always had a smile on his face. Despite the challenges of his work and his impressive track record as an advocate, he remained humble. Even in the face of the current war, Dr. Albaqir remained optimistic and confident
He will always be missed, and his legacy continues on through the generation of young Sudanese activists that he helped to train and mentor.
