Darfuri student killed in dorm identified after one week

A student who was shot dead by Sudanese security forces in Khartoum North on January 4 was identified yesterday. His identification was not possible before as his colleagues are being held by the intelligence and security service (NISS).

The body of student Saleh Yagoub, who was shot dead by NISS officers during a raid on a student dorm in El Durushab, was identified yesterday, lawyers said in a statement.

The body was brought to the Omdurman Teaching Hospital last Friday. It could not be identified by his relatives or colleagues, as they are all being held by the security apparatus.

The body then disappeared and later appeared in the hospital infirmary labeled with a report “unknown”.

Yagoub was a second-year student of political science at El Zaeem El Azhari University in Khartoum North. He came from the Kereindik camp for displaced people near El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur. His parents fled their village in West Darfur when it was attacked and torched by militiamen.

A number of mainly Darfuri students of the University of El Zaeem El Azhari live in the dormitory.

Earlier this week the Darfur Bar Association had submitted a request to the Sudanese attorney-general to initiate the necessary procedures for an investigation into his death. I then appealed to the relatives of the Darfuri students whose house was raided, to try to identify the body.