Security forces burn ‘246 beds’ at Khartoum university, Sudan

Security forces, together with students supporting the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), invaded the campus of the university of Khartoum on Friday night. They beat and arrested dozens of students in addition to burning 41 dormitories, or 246 beds.Students speaking to Radio Dabanga affirm the assault at the campus was a retaliation after undergraduates prevented Sudan’s second vice-president al-Haj Adam Youssef from entering the university last Thursday. According to them, Youssef is one of the “tyrants of the regime who is killing and starving the people of Sudan”. Security forces and NCP students reportedly entered the university at 9:00pm using batons, steal, white weapons, Molotovs, machetes and tear gas. Witnesses said that “violence lasted all night”. Several students were injured and some of them are in critical condition, sources say. In addition, dozens of students were arrested and taken to “unknown locations”. Until Sunday evening sources were not able to confirm to Radio Dabanga how many students were arrested or where they were taken to. 246 beds Witnesses confirmed that 41 rooms were burned down by NCP students and security forces, pointing out that each room has six beds. Therefore, they concluded, a total of 246 students had their beds burned and their belongings destroyed. However, the director of the university, Prof. al-Siddiq Ahmed Hayati, affirmed to Radio Dabanga that 27 rooms were burned down and that 132 students were affected.   ‘400 students thrown out’ Students told Radio Dabanga that the alleged perpetrators threw 400 female undergraduates out of their dorms (Mujama Azarah) during the attacks. They were forced to spend the night on the streets or at the university’s mosque. The independent students’ conference of the Khartoum University is demanding victims to be compensated for their losses and that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes. In a statement released on Sunday, the student’s conference affirms that all undergraduates will stage a sit-in protest “until everything is solved”. The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), the National Consensus Forces and the Sudanese National Front led by Ali Mahmoud Hassanein are demanding an “urgent investigation” into the incidents at the Khatroum University. They are further demanding that perpetrators are brought to justice, that students are released from detention and that others are treated for their injuries and compensated for their material losses. In a joint statement, opposition parties described the events at the university as “criminal and barbaric”, pointing out they one another example of the series of violations and crimes committed by the Khartoum regime in Darfur, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. They are demanding the international community to pressure Khartoum to release the students.Photo: Dormitory of the Khartoum University burned after attacks on Friday, 1 February 2013 (sudaneseonline.com)Related: Sudan security ‘storms’ Khartoum university, 2 critically wounded (1 February 2013)See more photos of the attack below: