SPLM-N El Hilu: South Kordofan graduates ‘liquidated in explicit racist targeting’

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu) has accused the Sudanese Military Intelligence of liquidating nine young graduates in the area of Kuek in South Kordofan, on Thursday. The movement considers what happened to be “explicit racist targeting”, and vowed to punish the perpetrators of this crime no matter how long it will take. It considered it a continuation of the army’s approach in implementing the scorched earth policy and crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Nuba Mountains region.

In a statement to Radio Dabanga on Friday, the SPLM-N El Hilu accuses Military Intelligence in South Kordofan of detaining nine young men and two young women from the Kega Luban area near Kuek, all of whom were recent university graduates, under the pretext of allegations that they were “collaborating with the rebel movement”.

The statement alleges that the military intelligence “tortured some of them to death”, and said that those who were killed “were all graduates of Sudanese universities from the Nuba Kega Luban tribe.

The SPLM attributed the army’s targeting of civilians “to compensate for its repeated losses and defeats” and vowed that “the perpetrators of this crime will not escape punishment, whether on the long or short term”.

The Emergency Follow-up Committee of the Nuba Alliance in Kuek also reported about the incident. “Military Intelligence committed a crime against humanity by detaining dozens of civilians, especially young academics, after the SPLM attacked the area during the past two days,” the alliance said in a statement on Thursday evening.

“The detentions were carried out under the pretext of collaborating with the SPLM-N,” the statement said and confirmed that the following young academics were tortured to death: Ramadan El Bashari, Shawgi Mukhtar, Abutalib Suleiman, Hiba Abdallah, Hasan Awad, Hasabo Abdallah, Atef Hasan, Shams El Hag, Ibrahim Abujalha, Husein Sheikheldin, and Ahmed Shaga. Another young man, Omar Haren, went missing.

The Sudanese Armed Forces have not yet responded to a request for comment by Radio Dabanga.