16 held in South Kordofan marches

The security forces arrested 16 people in El Tadamon locality in South Kordofan on Sunday for leading protest marches in El Tirtir last week.

Witnesses told Dabanga that a security force in 16 Land Cruisers mounted with Dushka machine guns detained 16 young people in El Tirtir on Sunday morning on charges of organising demonstrations in the town last week.

They said the arrests came immediately after a meeting of the security committee in the municipality with the state on Saturday evening, and pointed out that the authorities deported some of the detainees to prisons in Abu Jubeiha on Sunday and others in local jails while security forces continued to pursue activists in other areas in the neighbourhood.

In Khartoum, security officers detained Dr Hisham El Nour, professor of philosophy at the University of El Nilein on Tuesday.

Security agents detained three activists at El Gandoul square in central Khartoum yesterday during a peaceful demonstration against the government: Ahmed El Sharif, Ali El Hasan and Husam Gureish.

The security forces raided homes of Darfur students at the University of El Nilein in Jebel Awlia in southern Khartoum on Tuesday evening and detained nine students.

In River Nile state in northern Sudan, Saleh Omar, secretary-general of the Sudanese Congress Party in the state, was held in Atbara on Wednesday.