Sudanese Congress Party member held incommunicado

Security agents detained Widad Derwish, prominent member of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) in Omdurman today.

Derwish is the third SCP member within one week to be held in semi-detention by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). Khaled Omar Yousef, foreign affairs assistant to the SCP chairman, was detained in his home in Khartoum on Wednesday.

The agents confiscated his car and mobile phone, and took him to their office at Street 57 in El Amarat district, where they questioned him. He was released late that evening.

Since then, he has been held in semi-detention on a daily basis. SCP member Majdi Okasha, who was held later on Wednesday, received the same treatment.

On Sunday, after she returned from Cairo, which she visited for medical tests, Derwish was summoned to the security office in Amarat. She was ordered to return the next day, Mastour Ahmed, SCP’s political secretary told Radio Dabanga.

“When Derwish refused to return this morning, security officers entered her home in El Thawra in Omdurman. They have taken her to an unknown destination,” he said.

He added that the SCP submitted a complaint to the Political Parties Affairs’ Council today, urging the Council to intervene to protect the rights of its activist members.

“We stated in the complaint that the right to speak out is guaranteed by the 2005 Interim Constitution, and that the NISS is violating the law by detaining SCP activists.”

Last year, the SCP started its public campaign against the government by organising rallies in neighbourhoods and markets in various parts of Sudan.

“We cannot remain silent on all the crimes committed in the country. We are ready to make sacrifices in order to overthrow the regime,” Abubakar Yousef, the spokesman for the party, told Radio Dabanga on Monday.