Detained Sudanese teachers ‘badly treated’ by security agents

A group of 20 secondary school teachers who were detained by officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Khartoum in early May complain about the brutal treatment they faced in custody.

In a memorandum they presented to the Khartoum state Minister of Education on Sunday, they denounced the circumstances they had to deal with in the various NISS detention centres.

“Apart from the detention itself which was done without charges, the teachers faced various forms of humiliation,” Duriya Babikir, spokeswoman for the Teachers Committee told Radio Dabanga. “They let them stand for long hours in front of a wall for instance, and directed numerous verbal abuses to the women teachers.”

Babikir as well strongly criticised the state education minister “for closing the doors of the ministry to the teachers, while allowing the presence of NISS agents in the ministry who detained peacefully protesting teachers”.

On May 8, the Khartoum state Ministry of Education ordered the arrest of dozens of secondary school teachers who were staging a demonstration in front of the ministry because of delays in the payment of their dues. Babikir was detained as well. She and many others were released later that day. 20 others were held for more than a week.