Eight students shot in Sudan’s Omdurman University

Members of the Darfur Students Association at the University of Omdurman sustained injuries when pro-government students attacked them inside a discussion corner on Thursday, supported by gunfire from the security service.

Eight students were seriously wounded when security agents, backing students that belong to the ruling party's (NCP) youth wing, entered the corner and opened fire with live ammunition. “This is the first time I've seen them using live bullets,” a student activist told Radio Dabanga.

Students had gathered to attend a speech, organised by student members of Minni Minawi's rebel SLM-MM. The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has arrested a number of the participants, including Jehaina Hatem. She was brought to Shendi prison in Bahri, the office of the security service. They dropped her in downtown Khartoum, far away from Omdurman, late on Thursday night.

The seriously wounded students are being treated in the hospital, the student activist added. They managed to obtain and fill out a form at the police station (Form 8, attached below) before receiving medical treatment. “But most wounded are being treated in houses, to avoid being arrested by the NISS in the hospital.”

The eight seriously injured students are Mohamed Fadul EL Zerg, Mutasim Ali Abdallah, Mohamed EL Zein Mohamed, Mousa Daw El Beit, Amar Abakar Younes, Suleimun Yagoub Suleiman, Badawi Ishag Badawi, and Saleh Ibrahim.

Omdurman University's Darfur Students Association and regional branches have condemned the violence by the ruling party supporting students and the security forces, and the use of live ammunition.

What happened to the students, the activist told Radio Dabanga, “will not stop them”. “We will continue to speak out against the government, but more resilient.”

The speech by the SLM-MM students was aimed against the trial of Mohamed Baggari, who stands accused of killing a senior member of the Islamist student wing of the ruling National Congress Party, who was found dead at the Sharg El Nil College in Khartoum on 29 April. Clashes erupted at the college that day after militant NCP students attacked students attending a meeting of the Darfur Student Association. During the first hearing in the Khartoum Bahri Criminal Court last week, two Darfuri students were arrested when they protested the trial.

Photo of one of the bullet wounds (photo by student):