Sudan opposition leader barred from flying to Egypt

Sudanese security authorities prevented the co-president of the National Umma Party from travelling to Cairo on Monday evening, to attend a meeting with Sudanese rebel and opposition figures.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga yesterday, Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi said she would file a constitutional suit against the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) which prevented her travels. “I will try again today, to attend the meetings of the Sudan Revolutionary Front which are led by Jibril Ibrahim, on 12 October.”

El Sadig had completed all procedures to board the plane to Cairo. “A member of the security apparatus took my boarding pass and guarded me while my travel bad was being retrieved from the plane.

“The prevention is a flagrant violation of my freedom of movement and the Sudanese constitution.”

Barred

Sudanese human rights defender Dr Amin Mekki Madani was also barred from travelling to Egypt at the airport in Khartoum in January. Days later agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) prevented seven prominent opposition leaders from travelling to the French capital for meetings with the Sudan Appeal opposition.

Siddig Yousef, member of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of Sudan, was barred from travelling abroad in November 2016. In 2015, Yousef was also banned from travelling abroad for meetings with opposition leaders twice.