Hisham
Ali Mohammad Ali

Background and Work

Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali, who publishes under the names Husham Ali and Wad galeba, is a Sudanese blogger and human rights defender. He has contributed to a range of online forums and independent news websites, writing extensively on corruption, torture, and impunity in Sudan. His work has focused on the gap between official rhetoric and lived reality: the disappearances, the beatings in detention, the diversions of public funds.

He became a vocal supporter of the civil disobedience campaigns that began in late 2016, when Sudanese communities organised stay-at-home strikes to protest government austerity measures, human rights violations, and systemic corruption. These strikes prefigured the mass protests that would eventually topple Omar al-Bashir's regime in 2019, though the democratic transition they sought has since collapsed into renewed conflict.

In November 2017, Saudi Arabia, where he then lived, detained him at the request of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). In 2018 he was deported to Khartoum, where NISS held him incommunicado. His family said he was taken to hospital after being tortured in custody, and he was referred to the State Security Prosecution on charges including crimes against the state, which can carry the death penalty. He was released in April 2019, after the fall of Omar al-Bashir.

Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, Hisham has published articles opposing the conflict and criticising all armed parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, and allied militias. That editorial stance, refusing to align with any faction, has made him a target for multiple actors in the conflict.

Arrest and Passport Revocation

In July 2024, Hisham was arrested in Ethiopia. The circumstances of the arrest suggest coordination with the Sudanese embassy in Addis Ababa. He was later released, but his Sudanese passport has since expired, and Sudanese authorities have refused to renew travel documents for him or his family. The refusal leaves them in legal limbo, unable to travel onward or return, and vulnerable to further harassment.

Passport confiscation and refusal to renew documents are established tools of transnational repression, used by authoritarian states to immobilise dissidents abroad, restrict their access to asylum procedures, and maintain pressure on them and their families.

The Stabbing in Addis Ababa

On 23 December 2025, at approximately 8:00 pm, an unidentified man stopped Hisham on the street in Addis Ababa and stabbed him twice with a knife. The assailant made no demands and took none of Hisham's belongings. The attack did not resemble a robbery or spontaneous street violence. The attacker fled immediately after the stabbing.

Hisham was transported to hospital and received urgent medical treatment. Initial reports raised concerns about critical injuries, but doctors later confirmed that he had not sustained internal abdominal injuries. He remains under medical supervision.

Police officers visited him in hospital to record a statement and requested that he report to the police station the following day. At the time of writing, the identity of the attacker and the motive for the assault remain officially unknown. No arrests have been announced.

Context and Risks

The stabbing follows a pattern of escalating pressure. Hisham had been arrested with apparent Sudanese embassy involvement in July 2024. His passport and those of his family were subsequently invalidated, stranding them in Ethiopia. He continued to publish criticism of all parties to the Sudanese conflict, making him a potential target for the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, and aligned actors.

The attack occurred in a context of widespread transnational repression by Sudanese state and non-state actors. Sudanese dissidents in exile have been subjected to surveillance, threats, forced returns, family targeting, and physical violence. The targeted nature of the stabbing, the absence of any robbery motive, and the preceding passport revocation and arrest all point to a politically motivated assault.

Hisham remains in Ethiopia without valid travel documents, in a country where he has already been detained at the request of the Sudanese government, and where he has now been stabbed in what appears to be a targeted attack. His safety and that of his family remain in jeopardy.