More activists, students detained in Sudan

A group of security agents raided the home of the late Dr Faroug Kadouda in Khartoum today, and detained Dr Jalal Mustafa, leading member of the Committee of Solidarity with Victims of the September Demonstrations.

On Sunday, the deputy head of the Darfur Students Association was held in Omdurman, and taken to an unknown location.

The students detained in El Fasher during and after an anti-election protest have been charged and transferred to a prison in the North Darfur capital. 19 people detained in Darfur nearly one year ago, are held in custody in North Khartoum’s Kober prison without being charged.

Dr Asmaa El Sunni, the widow of Dr Kadouda, told Radio Dabanga that a group of nine security officers entered her home, and took Dr Mustafa with them.

“After Dr Mustafa had brought me home, I went up the stairs, and sat down. When I looked up, I saw two strange men in my room, who said they were members of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). They asked where Dr Mustafa was, and I told them that he had gone. They left, and when I looked out the window, I saw seven other men, who took him into their vehicle.”

She explained that Mustafa had accompanied her this (Monday) morning to the headquarters of the security apparatus in Khartoum. They met “El Sanhouri”, head of the NISS Information and Complaints Section, and filed a complaint about the detention and beating of her daughter, Sandra Kadouda.

Sandra Faroug Kadouda, activist, medical doctor, and mother of two, was held by men in civilian clothes on Sunday, when she was driving her car to an anti-election sit-in at the National Umma Party headquarters in Omdurman.

She was released in Khartoum two days later. Kadouda had been beaten, and her shoulder was dislocated. She immediately visited a police station, to acquire “Form 8”, legally required to obtain medical evidence of an assault.

Siddig Yousef, prominent Sudanese Communist Party leader and head of the Solidarity Committee, told Radio Dabanga today that the Sudan Appeal members will file a formal complaint against the security apparatus for “abducting and torturing” Kadouda. “All evidence proves that this was done by NISS officers.”

He further said that activists discovered a group of 19 Darfuris in North Khartoum’s Kober Prison. “They were detained in various parts of Darfur nearly one year ago, and have not been charged until now.”

‘Systematic targeting of Darfuris’

On Sunday afternoon, Nasreldin Mukhtar, student at the Holy Koran University in Omdurman, and Deputy Head of the General Darfur Students Association, was held at the Omdurman Shaabi Market, and taken to an unknown destination.

Kamal Ahmed Zein, representative of the Darfur Students Association, told Radio Dabanga that the detention of Mukhtar is part of the “systematic targeting of Darfuri students and activists in the country.”

He appealed to human rights organisations, political parties, and civil society organisations to intervene and pressure the security apparatus to “immediately release Mukhtar.”

El Fasher

In the capital of North Darfur, the number of detained students of El Fasher University has risen to 21.

Several students told Radio Dabanga that the 21 detainees have been transferred from security detention centres to Shala Prison. They are charged with disturbing the constitutional order, an offence that carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Most of the students were held during an anti-election demonstration they staged on Monday last week. Others were detained on the following days.

The sources noted that many students do not dare to enter the university and attend the lectures, because of the presence of a large police and security force at the campus. “This constitutes a big problem, as the examinations will begin on 10 May 10.”