Darfuri students detained, wounded, missing in Omdurman

Fifty-five Darfuri students at the Holy Koran University in Omdurman have been detained, wounded or missing since Monday, when a security raid took place on the campus.

Ten students sustained injuries and 14 of the students were or still are detained by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), according to the head of the Darfur Students Association. 31 students have gone missing, Nasreldin Mukhtar told Radio Dabanga.

He added that security agents detained Moaz Abdallah and Sharafeldin Shakhur on the campus on Tuesday morning. “They were taken to a room in the Holy Koran University, where the security troops beat the students and stripped them of their clothes, in front of other people. They threw the two in their vehicle and took them to an unknown destination,” Mukhtar claimed.

“The situation in the university is very difficult”

Meanwhile, policemen and NISS members are stationed inside the university with “seven vehicles loaded with weapons”, according to Mukhtar. “They are preventing students who originate from Darfur from entering the classrooms. They are armed with tasers.”

Excluded from boarding house

“In addition, Darfuri students have been excluded from the student boarding house in El Kalakla in northern Khartoum, and also from the boarding house in El Omda district in Omdurman […] The situation in the university is very difficult.”

On Monday, policemen and security agents, accompanied by armed students, raided the campus. A sit-in took place there in protest against the university’s decision not to exempt new Darfuri students from tuition and exam fees, in accordance with the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur. The attackers used batons, hoses, and tear gas to disperse the gathered students.

On 13 October, when Darfuri students of the Holy Koran University were holding a similar sit-in, a number of them were injured, six of them seriously, in a raid by police and security forces. The raid was also backed by militant student members of the ruling NCP. Eight students were detained at the time.

List of detainees and missing

Student leader Mohamed Abdallah said that fourteen students are still held at the police department in Wad Nubawi and in the offices of the NISS. He updated the list of detainees: Mohamed Adam Omar, Sarajeldin Yahya Idris, Musab El Osman El Amoudi, Ahmed Adam, Abdelsalam Ali, Abdelmalik Awad, Yunus Ahmed Ali, Mahjoub Ahmed Adam, and two students named Mustafa and Yousef.

Among the 31 missing students are Muntasir Mohamed Yahya, Muawia Adam Mohamedein, Abubakar Ahmed Abdelrazek, Nasreldin Abdelkarim, Mohamad Yaqub Mohamed, Nawfal Mohamed Saleh, Mohamed Abdallah Abu Asul, Ahmad Abdelatif El Sayadi, Muzamil Hussein Turki, El Zubeir Hussein Zakaria, and a student named Shamseldin.

Reportedly ten students were wounded on Monday, including Nasreldin Mukhtar, Musab El Osman El Amudi, Nasreldin Abdelkarim, Adel El Semawi, Mohamed Adam, and Muawia Adam Mohamedein.