Sudanese Congress Party leaders held incommunicado again

The whereabouts of two leading members of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP). who were detained by security agents south of Khartoum more than three weeks ago, are still unknown.

Ibrahim El Sheikh, the former head of the SCP, and Abubakar Yousif, the party’s political secretary, were detained, together with other party leaders 26 days ago.

On 19 July, a delegation of SCP members visited hundreds of Darfuri students who were stranded at a village south of Khartoum. The delegation expressed their solidarity with the students and offered them aid. On their way back to the capital, the party members were held by officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

Khaled Omar, SCP Deputy-President told Radio Dabanga on Friday that the family of El Sheikh managed to visit him in Kober Prison in Khartoum North three days before. “They found him determined to continue opposing the authorities, despite the poor detention conditions that clearly affected his health.”

Omar expressed his concerns about El Sheikh’s and Yousif’s whereabouts since the visit. “The current situation of detainees El Sheikh and Yousif is disturbing, as we understood today that they are not in Kober Prison anymore.”

He said that the detention of the two leaders was the second one in less than eight months. They were held and interrogated in a wave of arrests of party leaders following civil disobedience campaigns in November and December, in response to new austerity measures that led to a substantial increase in the prices of basic commodities, medicines, and fuel.

The deputy-president emphasised that the SCP “will continue to struggle against the racist policies of the regime, whether we are detained or not”.

In 2014, El Sheikh was held for more than three months for calling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by the NISS, unconstitutional.