♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
♦ Sudan: Security apparatus releases dozens of political detainees
February 20 – 2018 KHARTOUM NORTH The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) released more than 80 political detainees in Khartoum on Sunday. Yesterday, two leading opposition members were also released from detention while several politicians and journalists remain behind bars.
Dozens of families of the detainees and journalists gathered at the gate of Kober Prison in Khartoum North on Sunday afternoon after the NISS media department announced the imminent release of political detainees. At 8 pm, the first detainees appeared outside the prison, amid cheers and calls for freedom, peace, justice, and closure of the prison.
Security forces detained hundreds of activists and politicians during protests against new austerity measures and the skyrocketing prices of basic consumer goods in January. In particular leading opposition members were held during demonstrations in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum Bahri (North) organised by their parties. Journalists covering the protests were also arrested, including correspondents of AFP and Reuters. Newspapers were gagged.
At the time of reporting the NISS kept a number of political detainees, without providing an explanation for their continued detention. Neither has the security apparatus released the detained journalists, namely Kamal Karrar, a correspondent for El Midan newspaper, Ahmed Jadein, an El Jareeda reporter, and El Haji Abdelrahman El Moz of Akhbar El Yowm daily newspaper. Journalist and activist Amal Habani was arrested together with Karrar.
♦ 200+ people infected with 'watery diarrhoea' in Central Darfur's Nierteti
February 19 – 2018 NIERTETI The number of ‘acute watery diarrhoea’ cases, suspected to be cholera, is rapidly increasing in Central Darfur. At least 200 people are reportedly infected in the eatsern part of the locality. The isolation ward of the Nierteti Hospital in Central Darfur received 61 new cases of ‘acute watery diarrhoea’ on Saturday and Sunday.
A paramedic told Radio Dabanga from Nierteti that although no sample has been taken to determine the nature of the disease, the symptoms are similar to those of cholera. The paramedic reported that 119 patients are currently being treated in makeshift isolation centres in the villages of Kaweila and Mara. “The infected are lying on the ground in cottages. The shortage of intravenous solutions and medicines only worsens the situation.”
The disease re-appeared in the area in early February. Since then, at least eleven people have died of the disease in the area. September 2017 was the last time that Nierteti Hospital was treating more than ten cases of cholera – most of them arrived from the camps for displaced people – at a time when the spread of the epidemic in Sudan seemed to subside.
Activists appealed to humanitarian organisations and the federal and state Ministries of Health “to expedite the provision of medicines and intravenous solutions to contain the disease in Central Darfur”.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
February 20 – 2018 BIELEL Militiamen assaulted a number of displaced people who had returned to an area in Bielel locality last week, which is considered to be their home area…
February 20 – 2018 SHANGIL TOBAYA A girl was raped near a camp for displaced people in Shangil Tobaya, North Darfur, on Friday…
February 19 – 2018 KABKABIYA A 15-year-old boy was shot dead and mutilated by militiamen near Sortony camp for the displaced in North Darfur on Saturday morning. In…
February 19 – 2018 EL FASHER Dozens of lorry owners and drivers have been arrested in North and South Darfur in the past couple of weeks. They have been accused of…
February 18 – 2018 NYALA The South Darfur government, the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid), and UN agencies in Sudan will cooperate to facilitate the…
February 15 – 2018 NORTH DARFUR / KASSALA Families in parts of North Darfur and Kassala states may face difficulties meeting food needs, between now and May 2018…
February 15 – 2018 KHARTOUM 17 organisations and four individuals have signed an open letter to several UN Commissioners expressing concern over “the crackdown on…
February 15 – 2018 KHARTOUM The United States Embassy in Sudan has issued a statement expressing its concern at the many arrests and detentions carried out by the…
February 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM Agents of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) on Monday seized and detained nine student members of the Sudan…
February 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM NORTH Agents of the Sudanese security forces demolished the Evangelical Church in El Haj Yousif in Khartoum North on Sunday and…
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