Seven Darfur students held incommunicado

Security agents detained seven Darfuri students in Khartoum on Saturday, and took them to an unknown destination. 11 students have been summoned by an investigation commission of the Holy Koran University in Omdurman.

“Nasreldin Mukhtar, head of the Darfur Students Association of the Holy Koran University, Ahmed El Sayad, his deputy, Ziryab Mohamed, student at the Mamoun Hemeida University, and Mohamed Ali and El Tayeb Ibrahim who study at the Al Emirat University, were held at the students’ boarding house in El Amarat district in Khartoum,” a Darfuri student who declined to give their name reported to Radio Dabanga.

The source said that Darfuri students Abdelhakim Abdallah of the Holy Koran University and Nabil Suleiman, of the Omdurman Islamic University were detained in the Sunt forest in Khartoum.

Nasreldin Mukhtar, who is also Deputy Head of the General Darfur Students Association, regularly reported to Radio Dabanga about the situation of the Darfuri students at the Holy Koran University after they were attacked by student members of the ruling National Congress Party, backed by police and security forces, at the campus on 13 October.

The Darfur Students Association organised a speech that day to explain the reasons for a sit-in launched by the Darfuri students two days before. They demanded the implementation of the announcement by the Sudanese president who confirmed the stipulation in the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur about free education for Darfuri students.

Mukhtar said at the time that the management of the University of the Holy Koran and Islamic Sciences ignored the presidential announcement. The Association’s meetings with the dean did not produce any positive results, which prompted the students to continue their “peaceful protests”.

During the following days and weeks, militant NCP students and security agents continued to assault Darfuri students, abusing them with racist taunts, and barring them from entering the campus. Dozens of Darfuri students were detained.

It is the second time for Mukhtar to be detained. He was briefly held incommunicado in April this year. A fellow student said that his detention was part of the “systematic targeting of Darfuri students and activists in the country”.

Summons

Today, the Commission of Inquiry set up by the management of the Holy Koran University in Omdurman summonsed 11 members of the Darfur Students Association, four of them detainees, to appear before them on Monday.

The students are Nasreldin Mukhtar, Ahmed El Sayad, Abdelhakim Abdallah, Musab El Amoudi, Hassan Adam Arbab, Mohamed Adam Omar, Muawiya Adam, Nawfal Mohamed Saleh, Barima Ali Ahmed, Muzamil Hussein, and Zubeir Hussein Zakaria.