Ten Sudanese Congress Party activists detained in Khartoum

Officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained ten members of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) on Saturday.

The SCP reported in a press statement today that the ten party members were held because of the party's continuing campaign against the government being held at markets and other public places in the country since last year.

On Saturday evening, a group of NISS agents, armed with batons and pistols, detained the activists when they were leaving the SCP headquarters in Khartoum North, the statement reads.

Seven of them were released this (Sunday) morning, among them Hassan El Sheikh El Haboub and student Hamed Tagabo who were severely beaten. Mohamed Idris Jeddo, student Marwan Araja, and engineer Mohamed Kaddam are still being held.

Semi-detentions, flogging

On 9 August, SCP activist Widad Derwish was held in Omdurman. She was taken to their office at Street 57 in El Amarat district, where she was questioned, and told to come back the next mornings. When she refused to re-appear at the NISS office three days later, security agents took her from her home to an unknown destination.

Four days earlier, NISS agents detained Khaled Omar Yousef, foreign affairs assistant to the SCP chairman, in his home in Khartoum. They confiscated his car and mobile phone, and took him to the same office in El Amarat district. Yousef was released late that evening and told to appear again the next morning. The same happened with SCP member Majdi Okasha later that day.

On 8 July, SCP Political Secretary Mastour Ahmed Mohamed was flogged, together with two other prominent party members in front of the Omdurman Criminal Court, immediately after having been convicted of disturbing the public order. They had been detained on 28 April at Soug Libya in Omdurman during a public rally in which they openly criticised the policies of the ruling party.

The SCP has vowed to continue its campaign against Khartoum “until the regime has been overthrown”.