Eight Sudanese students flogged in Omdurman

An Omdurman criminal court sentenced eight students of the University of Khartoum’s Faculty of Education to 20 lashes each on Wednesday morning. Three Darfuri students are still being held incommunicado by the security apparatus.

The sentence was implemented immediately to Haidar Ahmed Eisa, Mohamed Saleh Khiyar, Habib Ahmed Hassan, Bilal Fadel Hamdi, Nasreldin Mohamed Nouri, Mohamed Ibrahim, Imran Abakar, detained on 4 January, and an eight student who was detained not much later.

“The sentence is insulting and humiliating. It is unprecedented has not been not stipulated in any law governing the Sudanese universities,” a fellow student told Radio Dabanga.

The students were convicted on charges of violating the order at the University, following their arrest during a peaceful sit-in at the campus in Wad Nubawi in Omdurman. They protested against their expulsion from the Faculty of Education, and demanded their reinstatement, as well as the improvement of the university environment and libraries as well.  

After the court sentence, the protesting students of the Faculty of Education held a press conference. The event however was disturbed by militant students of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) who stormed the premises with knifes, metal bars, and guns. Some of them shot in the air. Some students sustained minor injuries.

“In the press conference, the protesting students intended to announce that they conditioned lifting of their sit-in with the implementation of 50 per cent of their demands, including the cessation of violence by NCP students and dissolution of the university police,” the student said.

Release demanded

The Darfur Students Association (DSA) has requested the Sudanese authorities to release three students who are still held incommunicado by the security apparatus.

Adam Ibrahim Hajar and Hamid Rahamtallah Eisa, Chairman and Deputy Secretary-General of the of the DSA at the Holy Koran University, were detained in November last year. Bosh Omda Bosh, DSA Secretary-General of of the DSA at the University of Sudan for Science and Technology was arrested from the El Nilein University on Sunday, 8 January.

In a statement on Wednesday, the DSA stated that it holds the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) responsible for the safety of the students, and expressed its concern that the detained students may be physically and mentally abused, or even “eliminated”.

The Association called on the NISS to reveal the place of the students’ detention, and on legal and humanitarian bodies to provide assistance to the students.