Sudan security detains four RNM members

The Sudanese security service detained four prominent members of the Reform Now Movement on Thursday, during public speeches at the Karkar transport station in Khartoum. A number of Sudanese Congress Party members is still held in semi-detention, the party spokesman reported.

The four were carrying banners with slogans aimed against the government, and harshly criticised the government's policies before security members in civilian clothes intervened and took them away. It is not yet known whether Khaled Nouri, head of the RNM in Khartoum State and his deputy, Ja'far El Sadiq, Sami Abdelwahab, member of the political office, and Naji, official of the youth and students' wing, are still in detention as of Friday morning.

In related events, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has canceled a political symposium of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) led by Ibrahim El Sheikh for the second time, reportedly for security reasons. It was scheduled to be held at El Rabita Shambat Square.

Bakri Yousif, the spokesman for the opposition party, considered the decision as a contradication to the Constitution in Sudan. He said that President Al Bashir issued directives which allowed the political parties to hold symposiums inside and outside their headquarters.

“We will continue our campaign until we overthrow the regime through a popular uprising,” the spokesman told Radio Dabanga on Thursday. On the party's Facebook page, a statement was released about the detained members: “They did not bear arms or appeal for foreign intervention or call for toppling […] but they talked about corruption and spoke to people about their rights.”

Bakri added that the NISS were still chasing the party’s cadres, and said that the security service still summons a number of them to appear at the office daily. The SCP members in semi-detention include Khaled Omar Yousef, foreign affairs assistant to SCP chairman Ghazi Salahedin El Attabani: he has been ordered to appear daily for thirty days. Also Majdi Okasha (29 days), Widad Derwish (28 days), engineer Mohamed Kaddam (15 days), Mohamed Idris Jeddo (15 days), Wifag Gureshi and student Marwan Araja (12 days), Fouad Osman (5 days), and Mohamed Bashir (4 days).

On 22 August, a group of security service agents, armed with batons and pistols, detained the majority of the opposition party members as they were leaving the SCP headquarters in Khartoum North. On 9 August, SCP activist Widad Derwish was held in Omdurman. Four days earlier, NISS agents detained Khaled Omar Yousef, and Majdi Okasha later that day.

Photos below (RD): Demonstration at Karkar in Khartoum on Thursday 4 September: