Anger as student activist shot dead in Sudan

A student at Omdurman’s Ahlia University was shot dead when the student supporters of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), backed by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Service (NISS) opened fire as he was addressing the Association of Nuba Mountains Students today. It is the second deadly incident involving Sudanese university students in nine days.

Multiple callers told Radio Dabanga that Mohamed Sadiq, a student at the University of Omdurman Ahlia who also taught English Language Level II at the university’s Faculty of Arts, died from bullet wounds.

When his body was transferred to his home from Omdurman hospital mortuary in the evening, hundreds of people attended a demonstration (see video below).

Callers told this station that the meeting of the Association of Nuba Mountains Students at Omdurman University was called this morning “to address the response to the attack on the students of the National Conference of blind students in the Nuba Mountains last week.

“It was also intended to discuss the killing of student Abu Bakr Hashim at the University of Kordofan in El Obeid on April 19.”

A witness said the clash began with armed student supporters of the NCP backed by NISS officers. “The armed NCP students opened fire on the gathering. Mohammed Sadiq killed on the spot, others were injured, and many are now missing – we don’t know where they are.”

Protests

In Khartoum, the news of the killing sparked angry reactions and sporadic protests in the street. The Secretary General of the National Umma Party called on the population “to participate in Sadiq’s funeral, support young people in the universities, and move to a healthy uprising – and even overthrow the regime.”

The opposition National Consensus Forces (NCF) called on the Sudanese people “to rise up in the face of the killers”, adding that “the funeral of martyr Mohamed Sadiq will be a defining turning point in the evolution of political events in our country.”

In a press statement, the NCF called on “the heads of parties and organisations, lawyers, doctors, professors, and all sectors and groups to join the crowd in the slain student’s funeral.

This was echoed by a statement by the opposition Sudanese Congress, which called on the Sudanese “to fill the streets and squares, brandishing, shouting, and turn the anger trapped their breasts to disobey the throne of tyranny.”

Kordofan University

A student was shot and killed by other students, backed by NISS members, at the University of Kordofan in El Obeid on 19 April. Reports state that the clash erupted between two students movements, during the registration of their candidate lists for the student council election. Many students were detained, while eleven of them have been charged with rioting and and violating public safety.

The events must be urgently and impartially investigated, Amnesty International said last week, pointing out that repression of students in Sudan intensifies.