Sudanese activist deported from Saudi Arabia detained in Khartoum

A Sudanese activist who was deported from Saudi Arabia has been detained in Khartoum since May 27. In Khartoum, the security service released people who had protested the water and power outages in Port Sudan.

The family of activist Hisham Ali received reports that he has been tortured and taken to El Amal hospital, a hospital belonging to the Sudanese security service (NISS). This happened after his deportation from Saudi Arabia.

Ali’s cousin, Mohamed Mutasim Kabashi, said the family has not been allowed to see him ever since he has been detained. The activist, also known as Wad Galiba, was detained by the Saudi Interior Ministry on November 18, 2017, at the request of the Sudanese intelligence. He was extradited from Saudi Arabia to Sudan on May 29 this year.

“We received information about his torture and that he was transferred to El Amal hospital for treatment. There, we were not able to meet him or even to find out what happened,” Kabashi said.

A political activist of many years, Ali took to online platforms in 2013 to expose government corruption. On his Facebook page, he wrote on torture in Sudanese detention centres and expressed his support of the civil disobedience actions carried out in end 2016 in Sudan.

Amnesty International called for his immediate and unconditional release on June 1.

Port Sudan activists

Yesterday, the National Intelligence and Security Service released the detainees who protested the water and electricity cuts in Port Sudan. After their detention for nearly a month the NISS released Ihab Mohamed Mahjoub, El Mahi Hashim and Mazin El Amin yesterday.

In June, various protests erupted in the Red Sea state capital against the month-long acute water crisis. Dozens of demonstrators were detained. An activist reported to this station on June 17 that the authorities earlier dismissed the director of the Red Sea Water Corporation. “Yet the new director did not manage to restore the drinking water supply which is suffering from outages for years,” he said.