Six students, poet detained in El Obeid and Khartoum
Six students are detained during Omar Al Bashir’s visit to El Obeid. A poet at a memorial event for poet Mahjoub Sharif criticises Sudan’s election and ends up being detained.
The security service in El Obeid, North Kordofan, took at least six university students into custody during the visit of President Omar Al Bashir on Friday, who launched his electoral campaign there. A poet was detained in Khartoum after criticising the election during a commemorative event for famous poet Mahjoub Sharif.
One of the students told Radio Dabanga that security forces took three students in the railway district of the capital, El Sikhadid, into custody. Three others were picked from a bus in the market of El Obeid by security forces, and taken away to an unknown destination, like the first three students.
This took place when Al Bashir visited El Obeid. He vowed to complete the water services, roads, education, and health projects in the city.
According to the student, the six university students are Mujahid Hamdan, Adam Yagoub, Asad Zakaria, Abdelmonim Saleh, Abdelrahman Udai, and Mohamed Gismallah.
Yousif Awad El Karim El Dosh detained
In Khartoum, security forces detained the poet Yousef Awad El Karim El Dosh on Thursday, and took him to an unknown destination. El Dosh had participated in a commemorative festival for the first anniversary of the death of famous Sudanese poet Mahjoub Sharif, 'poet of the people'.
The poet addressed the festival's crowd at the youth centre of El Sajana neighbourhood in the capital city. He uttered critical words against the current political situation in Sudan, particularly the upcoming election. The security service detained him directly after leaving the centre on Thursday evening.
In a statement, the Mahjoub Sharouf Committee condemns the arrest of El Dosh. “It is a violation of the rights of free expression, and against the Sudanese constitution. We demand his immediate release.”
The Secretary-General of the Sudanese Writers Union, which was recently dissolved by the government, told Radio Dabanga that he and his comrades searched for El Dosh in security offices throughout Khartoum. Osman Shinger: “We looked in all offices, but they denied to us that they had him in detention.”
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'Sudan's poet of the people' Mahjoub Sharif died (4 April 2014)
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