Third day of unrest, detentions among students in Khartoum

Violence by students, who support Sudan's ruling party, and collaborating security forces in the capital city continued on Friday. It is the third day that universities in Khartoum and Omdurman witness unrest, including beatings and detentions.

A student from the Sharg El Nil University in Khartoum told Radio Dabanga that the students who support the National Congress Party (NCP), armed and riding in vehicles, raided the university on Thursday. The NCP students took a number of university students to one of their offices at Khartoum’s El Soug El Arabi market.

“The worst part,” the student explained, “was when the detained students there were beaten and humiliated. They had to take off their clothes in front of security and police forces, who did not act against it.”

He was not able to disclose the number of detained nor released students.

A student was killed, and dozens of others wounded in clashes at Sharg El Nil on Wednesday. Reportedly about 150 militant NCP students attacked a number of meeting Darfuri students. One of the assailants, Mohamed Awad El Karim, Secretary-General of the National Islamist Students Movement, was killed. 

The Islamist Students Movement is the student wing of the NCP.

El Ahliya University

At El Ahliya University in Omdurman, students were beatend and detained, too. An activist student told Radio Dabanga that Darfuri students were targeted and beaten, and a number of them was detained by security troops supporting the NCP students.

Seven students sustained injuries in fighting on Thursday morning, which took place after NCP students stormed the university. The student said that besides El Ahliya, a number of other universities were invaded by the pro-government students on Thursday, against the backdrop of the killing of Awad El Karim on Wednesday.

In the Sudlibya market of Omdurman, students were also detained, while they were returning home, a student reported to Radio Dabanga.

“NCP students and security forces are still out harrassing students inside schools and streets.”

Nyala students protest

In South Darfur, Nyala University students residing at the Musa compound held a sit-in on Wednesday. They demanded the formation of a students’ union that would support stopping the intervention of security forces in the campus and improve the services in the dormitories.

“The students have put forward a number of demands to the university’s administration office,” one of the protesting students told Radio Dabanga. “We submitted a memorandum to the chancellor yesterday [Wednesday] stating that we will continue the sit-in until the package of demands are met.”