Port Sudan security officers question union leaders

The Economic Department of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Port Sudan briefly held two leading members of the Alternative Port Workers Union on Sunday.

Osman Tahir, Chairman of the Alternative Union, told Radio Dabanga that he and his colleague Abboud Sherbini were held by agents of the NISS economic department at the Southern Container Port in the Red Sea state capital on Sunday morning.

Tahir and Sherbini were staging a protest against the visit of representatives of the Dubai Ports Company to the Southern Container Port.

After being held for a few hours and having been questioned about their motives, they were released again.

The Dubai Ports Company was one of the companies that competed for the tender regarding the management of the Southern Container Port. “They withdrew in July before returning and sending a technical delegation consisting of two foreigners who met with the port’s deputy director-general of the port and toured the Southern Container Port,” Tahir explained.

He said that the port administration attempted to keep the visit secret. “However, the about 50 workers who were there at that moment, told the delegation members they were not welcome in the port. The visitors interrupted their tour, and returned to the hotel.”

Since the beginning of this year, workers at the southern port protest the privatisation of the harbour facilities.

Tahir stold this station in February that the planned privatisation of the Southern Container Port will lead to the unemployment of hundreds of workers which will seriously affect the livelihood of their families as well.