United Nations Report on Slavery in North Africa (Excerpts)

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
—Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

Page 17: "The Special Rapporteur has received persistent reports and testimonies concerning the abduction and traffic of children practised in central and southern Sudan on a mass scale by the above-mentioned paramilitary units. The most notorious case brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur by several independent sources is the abduction of 217 — mainly Dinka — children in the summer of 1993 when a [militia] train convoy was proceeding from Babanusa to Wau."
Page 16-17: "All the reports and information received indicate the direct and general involvement of the government, army, PDF, government-armed militias, and mujahidan groups, backed by the Government of Sudan and fighting beside the army and the paramilitary units, in the abduction and deportation of civilians from the conflict zones to northern Sudan. The places where those captured are temporarily detained before reaching their final destinations are also operated by army, PDF, and/or mujahidin units.
In the light of this information, the Special Rapporteur concludes that the total passivity of the Government after having received information for years regarding the situation can only be interpreted as tacit political approval and support of the institution of slavery and the slave trade. Repeated reports have indicated the involvement of local wealthy civilians, often well known for their close relations with the Government. It should be noted that all these practices have a pronounced racial aspect, as the victims are exclusively southerns and persons belonging to the indigenous tribes of the Nuba Mountains [i.e., blacks]. Among the latter group, even Muslims are enslaved.
In most of the cases brought to the attention of the Government of the Sudan, the reported perpetrators belong to the Sudanese army and the PDF, which are under the control of the Government of the Sudan. Even in the cases involving members of different tribal militias, the slavery occurred within the context of the war and there are the same perpetrators (Arabs) and victimes (Nubans and southerners). This indicated a deliberate policy on the part of the Government to ignore or even condone this practice of slavery as a way of fighting the civil war by other means."
Page 20-21: "Since the overwhelming majority of the victims are children belonging to southern tribes or tribes from the Nuba Mountains and the Ingassema Hills [black Muslims], the racial aspect of the violations cannot be disregarded. The Special Rapporteur believes that the racial dimension of the violations and abuses against children living in northern Sudan, or, in the case of children in southern Sudan, those who are abducted and sold into slavery constitutes a particularly grave and alarming circumstance, which should be of particular concern from a human rights perspective."
Page 33: "The Special Rapporteur cannot but conclude that the abduction of persons, mainly women and children, belonging to racial, ethnic, and religious minorities from southern Sudan. Their subjection to the slave trade, including the traffic in and sale of children and women, slavery, servitude, forced labour, and similar practices are taking place with the knowledge of the Government of the Sudan."
Page 37: "A fatwa issues in April 1992 and publicly supported at the highest Government level explicitly sets froth the status of all those who oppose the Government: 'An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate; and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing as a bulwark against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them.'"

Sources

Slavery and Slave-like Practices: Report of the Mission to Mauritania, by Marc Bossuyt, July 2, 1984, to the Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, by special rapporteur Gaspar Biro, February 1, 1994, to Commission on Human Rights.
Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, by special rapporteur Gaspar Biro, February 20, 1996, to Commission on Human Rights.