Sudan’s political detainees in West Kordofan continue strike

The five students who have been detained in En Nahud, West Kordofan, together with El Jareeda journalist Hassan Ishag, have continued their hunger strike since Thursday 19 June, in a protest against their detention without a fair trial. Meanwhile, opposition politicians have formed a national committee to advocate for the release of opposition leader Ibrahim El Sheikh. In the meantime, their fellow students are sitting for exams, while the detainees did not receive any notifications from their universities. The five students are Marwan Ishag Arja and Fathi Mohamed, both studying at the University of Khartoum, Mohamed Abdin and Nasreldin Mohamed Hussein, students of the University of Sudan, and Abdel Rahim Osman, Faculty of Medicine student at the University of West Kordofan. The medicine students sat their exams last Wednesday, without Abdel Rahim. Yasin Salah, the general secretary of the Independent Students Congress, told Radio Dabanga that the five detainees were reported to have been pressured by the prison administration to lift their hunger strike. “They rejected, while their health has worsened owing to their deteriorating situation inside the prison.” Salah expressed his concern and the concerns of the families of the students of the loss of an academic year, and demanded that the authorities release them immediately.National committee for release of SCP leader In Khartoum, representatives of political opposition parties and civil society organisations formed a national committee to advocate for the release of the leader of the Sudanese Congress Party, Ibrahim El Sheikh, who is also detained in En Nahud prison. He was arrested for criticising the paramilitary rapid Support Forces (RSF), popularly known as Janjaweed. Mohamed Hafiz, member of the defence team, defended El Sheikh’s statements about the RSF. “What he said about those forces should not be taken as the basis for charges of any kind, let alone such serious charges as ‘undermining the constitutional order’ and ‘treason’, which are punishable by death.” El Sheikh has commented on the gross violations of human rights committed by the government RSF and the nature of their formation from mostly former Janjaweed elements. According to Hafiz, the formation of the government RSF, their presence alongside the national army, and their deployment in any part of Sudan should be “a debatable matter for all those careful for the country’s interest”. File photo: Students in Darfur University (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Sudan’s journalists rally for press freedom in Khartoum (26 June 2014) En Nahud detainees in Sudan’s West Kordofan on hunger strike (19 June 2014) Sudanese Congress Party leaders detained (9 June 2014)