Students reportedly tortured in Nyala

The Sudanese national security service reportedly arrested a group of high secondary school students in Nyala, South Darfur, relatives of the detainees told Radio Dabanga on Friday, 16 November. The students were arrested on 8 November for allegedly stealing money and documents from an office located in the Hay al-Emtidad neighborhood in Nyala. Relatives confirmed they were released this week. Families of the detainees told Radio Dabanga the security services brutally tortured the students, using also a modality called water fire. They explained this consists of burning victims with electric shocks using water and car batteries. In addition, students were hung upside down from the roof and verbally insulted by the security services, sources pointed out. Students’ relatives said they pressed charges against the security services, who in response, threatened to kill them. According to sources, the security services also said that ‘no one can counter them and have them arrested’. ‘The real motive’ At the same time, victims’ relatives said the real motive of the students’ arrest was because they were accused of participating in the Nyala protests during the Ramadan holiday this year, and not for stealing, as claimed by the security services. Sources asserted the allegations that students stole money and documents were simply an excuse used by the security services to arrest and torture the students. Lawyers, activists and Nyala residents condemned the students’ arrests and torture, describing the latter as ‘brutal’. They demanded that members of security services are brought to justice and said such things should not happen in the history of Sudan. Detainees The students who were arrested, according to sources, are: Abu Khassim Mohamed Ismail, Mohamed al-Fateh Mohamed Adam, Ayed Abdullah Ahmad, Nazar al-Farea, Mohamed, Mohammed Billeh Mohammed, Ahmed Awad, and Ammar Abdullah Teerab.See below more photos of the students: