Khartoum University threatens to close doors

The University of Khartoum has threatened to close its doors should its students continue their strike against plans to sell the premises of faculties.

Protests by students against the plans to relocate the faculties to outside the city, reportedly to make way for tourist attractions, started on 13 April in streets of Khartoum. Agents of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) dispersed the protesters with teargas and detained a number of students.

The student strike started on 18 April and professors of the University of Khartoum joined in solidarity with their demands.

Yesterday, several students told Radio Dabanga that the university administration has threatened to dismiss the students and close the university if they continue their sit-in. Classes have been halted at all the faculties because of the strike.

A student described the atmosphere at the university as “tense, with a large number of police and NISS members present. They are heavily armed and seen moving around the university.”

Another student who was detained by the security service as one of the demonstrators, recounted that the detainees are subjected to “torture” by the members of the security service.

“Student Ahmed Zuhair Daoud, of at the Faculty of Agriculture, was tortured. His nose was broken.”

The NISS arrested 23 graduates of the University of Khartoum on Saturday during a protest carried out at the university this week. They had publicly demanded that the university administration should clarify its stance on the issue of sale of the university premises.

The Council of Ministers said that no decision has been made on moving faculties of the university from their current location, or dispose of them, calling the relocation plans a rumour.

Port Sudan protests

University students in Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea, had been demonstrating against the removal of the students’ union for four consecutive days on Monday. They demand the return of the union in Port Sudan University.

A student at a sit-in told Radio Dabanga that all faculties of Port Sudan University have gone out in demonstrations that sweep through the streets of the city. He said that the police and security service confronted the demonstrators “with excessive force, using sticks and teargas, which caused some students serious injuries”.

On Sunday, policemen detained 15 of the demonstrators and did not release them until the evening.