Politician, student detained in northern Sudan

Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained a member of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) and a student in Atbara in northern Sudan last week. In Khartoum, NISS officers reportedly beat up three demonstrators.

“Security agents held SCP member Siddig Rifai and a Nile Valley University student called Abdelhai, and took them to an unknown destination,” an activist told Radio Dabanga.

“This happened after a demonstration against the soaring prices, that was organised by a number of women in front of the Atbara Grand Mosque on Friday.”

The source expressed concern that the detainees might be subjected to ill treatment or torture during their detention, and appealed to human rights organisations “to intervene to save their lives”.

Beaten

In Khartoum, three activists were subjected to beatings on Wednesday.

One of them told the independent digital newspaper Hurriyat that security agents “cursed and beat” her after a protest against the soaring medicines prices in El Gasr Street in downtown Khartoum.

Two of her colleagues were arrested together with her. They were beaten as well. One of them suffered from a bleeding nose. His glasses were broken and his clothes torn, she reported.