Protest after student drowned in East Darfur

Students of the University of Ed Daein in East Darfur staged a mass demonstration on Tuesday to protest against the drowning of a student in a ground water tank of the dormitory.

The university administration announced the suspension of studies in all colleges for three days in mourning for the student.

The demonstrators chanted “No education in a painful situation”, calling for the dissolution of the Student Support and Welfare Fund, established by the ousted Al Bashir regime.

Complaint

In a statement, the university’s Council of Deans announced it will file a complaint against the Student Fund, accusing its administration, the director of housing, and the dormitory supervisor of negligence.

The student, Radia Adam, who was studying at the Daawa College at the first level, fell in the tank for drinking water on Monday and drowned.

For years, students decry the corrupt and discriminatory policies of the Student Support and Welfare Fund (formerly known as the National Endowment Fund). In October 2014, the Fund refused to register new students from Darfur, and ordered the eviction of 70 Darfuri women students from a boarding house in Khartoum.

In June 2016, dozens of students were violently evicted from a dormitory in Khartoum North, after the Fund had “reported its inability to settle its arrear payments of the rent for the boarding houses, and therefore decided to reduce the number of dormitories”.

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