Security service bars activist from leaving Sudan

The Sudanese security service barred a civil society activist from travelling from Khartoum Airport to Cairo, under the pretext that she has been permanently banned from travelling abroad.

Jalila Khamis was barred on Wednesday. She told Radio Dabanga that the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) notified her on Wednesday that, in conjunction with her travel dates, she was suspected of being related to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) armed movement.

The Sudan Call, a coalition of opposition movements and parties including the SPLM-N, kicked-off a series of meetings in France on Wednesday.

Khamis said that she booked another flight on Thursday after she was questioned. “But I was surprised to be banned from travelling by airport security again, on the grounds that a security decision was issued in Khartoum to permanently prevent me from travelling out of the country.”

She said that airport security held her for more than two hours in their office before she was released – her passport confiscated. It is the third time that Khamis has been banned from travelling out of the county following a security decision in Khartoum

Khamis denounced the decision of the NISS to place a travel ban on her and confiscate her passport. “They have targeted me and confiscated my rights.”

Her activities are clear, she told Radio Dabanga. “They are related to civil society organisations, and not related to any political work. The security authority can check this with me.”

Travel bans

Earlier this month, Secretary-General of the opposition National Umma Party Sarah Nugdallah was barred from leaving Sudan and her passport was also confiscated. She had been prevented from travelling in May, too.

At the time, the NUP said barring its secretary-general from travelling abroad “is part of the regime's policy of giving the security apparatus a free hand in order to restrict political and civil action and suppress freedoms”.