Crackdown on SCP: Two more members arrested

Two more prominent members of the Sudanese Congress Party have been arrested by the National Intelligence and Security Service, to join the more than twenty arrested party leaders and members – including the SCP president.

The opposition party released a statement about the arrest of Jalal Mustafa, the secretary of the aprty's secretariat of foreign relations, on Sunday afternoon while he was on his way to have an interview with an international TV channel about the civil disobedience campaign.

On Sunday night the NISS arrested another party member named Sayda Sharif from her house, and took her to an unknown destination.

Abdelrahman El Mahdi, the head of the SCP branch in Khartoum North, was also arrested according to a press statement released last Friday. At the time of the arrest he was distributing posters that call for a mobilisation against the government's policies.

The civil disobedience action is aimed against the recent austerity measures called for by activists on social media since Thursday. Following new economic measures that took effect on 4 November, the prices for airlines, bus transportation and consumer goods increased sharply. Limited demonstrations broke out in several Sudanese towns.

NISS officers have detained a number of protesters, including the president of the SCP, his deputy, the party’s secretary-general, and 22 other leading members. They are being held incommunicado.