Darfuri students barred from Holy Koran University

Darfuri students were prevented from entering the Holy Koran University in Omdurman today; for the third consecutive day this week.

Nasreldin Mukhtar, head of the Darfur Students Association, reported to Radio Dabanga that this (Wednesday) morning, agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) seized eight students who had managed to enter and took them to the premises of the Students Union on the campus.

“There, the security men beat them severely, took their money and mobile telephones, and evicted them from the campus,” he said.

Clashes erupted at the Holy Koran University on 13 October when police and security forces, backed by militant student members of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) stormed the campus where Darfuri students had organised a sit-in in protest against the management’s decision not to exempt new Darfuri students from tuition and exam fees.

That day and during the following days, NISS agents barred Darfuri students from entering the university, and detained a number of them.

“No one of the Darfur Regional authority, headed by Dr El Tijani Sese, intervened so far. They even did not ask what happened.”

When the students organised another sit-in this Monday, they were attacked again. 55 Darfuri students were injured, detained, or went missing, Mukhtar told Radio Dabanga yesterday.

He reported this afternoon that three of the 14 detained students were released: Muawia Adam Mohamedein, Moatasim Younes, and Adel El Semawi.

Concerning the whereabouts of the 31 “missing students”, he said that nine students of them are held at the Wad Nubawi police station: Mohamed Adam Omar, Mohamed Hamad, Abakar Mohamed Adam, Mohamed Hamid El Mahdi, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, Adam Ahmed Mohamed, Samir Ibrahim, Hamid Abdelrahman Abakar, and Zakaria Abdelrahman.

The student leader expressed his regret that “no one of the Darfur Regional authority, headed by Dr El Tijani Sese, intervened so far. They even did not ask what happened, despite the insults, beatings, detentions, and expulsions by the NISS, and the administration's refusal to exempt Darfuri students from paying fees – as stipulated in the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, signed by Sese”.