Sudan’s NISS detains former head of Doctors’ Committee

On Thursday morning, officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) held the former head of the Sudanese Doctors’ Central Committee from his residence in Khartoum, and took him to the office of the State Security Prosecution.

Dr Hassan Karrar Mamoun was charged with “undermining the country's health security by forming an illegal body,” the Committee said in a statement on Thursday.

The independent Sudanese Doctors’ Central Committee was established in October 2016 as a parallel body to the Sudanese Doctors Union, that is reportedly related to the government. The independent Sudanese medics needed a platform for the open-ended strike they started on 6 October. They demanded protection against aggressive relatives of patients, a pay rise, and better working conditions. A week later the medical staff of 136 state hospitals had joined the action.

In the statement, the Doctors’ Committee accused the Sudanese Doctors Union and the General Union of Medical and Health Professions of lodging a complaint against Mamoun for forming the Committee illegally.

It further stated that many lawyers have volunteered to defend the former chairman by proving the legality of the Committee. The federal Health Minister and the Second Vice President met with the members of the Doctors’ Central Committee more than once in October to discuss the doctors demands.  

After reaching an agreement with Vice-President Hassabo Abdelrahman and Minister of Health Bahar Idris Abu Garda on 20 October, the doctors temporarily called off the strike, “to give the government more time to implement its commitments”.

Ten days later, the physicians announced a resumption of the strike for two days a week. The spokesman for the Committee accused the government of not being serious in dealing with the demands of the doctors of improving the work environment and providing medical equipment to the state hospitals.

The strike continued in November. NISS agents increasingly detained medics who downed their tools in various parts of the country, and some hospitals dismissed striking medics.