Students held, beaten as Sudan crisis demo dispersed

Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained 13 students of the University of El Gedaref in Sudan and violently dispersed a student protest.

At least 15 students were injured when NISS agents ‘used excessive force’ to disperse the mass demonstration organised by the students of the university in protest against the absence of security, the deteriorating conditions in the dormitories and the lack of water, electricity and hike of prices.

Witnesses from El Gedaref told Radio Dabanga that the demonstrations went from the students’ dormitories to the governor’s residence chanting slogans denouncing the deteriorating situation.

They said the demonstrators closed the road to the female students’ dormitory in the town centre.

They said that a force of security and police broke up the demonstration using excessive violence, rubber bullets and tear gas, resulting in the arrest of 13 students and causing 15 others varying injuries and shortness of breath.

They reported that a number of citizens joined the demonstration.

The witnesses said that the detainees were: Mohamed Suleiman, Mutawakil Abdallah, Mohamed Salah, El Tayeb Kardash, Mutawakil Hamoda, Mohamed El Bagir, Mohamed Abdelmonim, Bahaaeldin Osman, Tayeb El Mubarak, Hashim Abdelrahman, Rami Abdelmonim, Omar El Radma, and Ubei Feisal..

Khartoum

On Tuesday, the University of Sudan for Science and Technology in Khartoum issued a decision dismissing 1,500 students from the Faculty of Agricultural Studies at the Shambat Complex in Khartoum North for boycotting the exams in protest against being subjected to attacks on the campus.

A member of the student committee told Radio Dabanga that their sit-in entered its third month in protest against the violence and the dismissal of a number of students.

He explained that they had filed complaints to the university administration, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Education Committee in the Parliament before the decision without finding a response.

He explained that on Tuesday the dean of the faculty and the faculty registrar informed them of the decision of their suspension for one year.

A member of the Shambat Students’ Committee said that the sit-in, which began last February, came against the backdrop of attack on one of the student with swivel and wounding three others with live bullets, causing partial paralysis to one of them.

 He explained to Radio Dabanga that the female students also carried out a second protest in front of the dormitory for which the university administration punished 17 of them with the dismissal, prompting 1,500 students out of 1,700 students, at the Faculty of Agriculture to strike until their demands will be fulfilled.

He said they handed their demands over to the faculty deanship.

He explained that their demands include investigating the violence, arrest of the perpetrators and return of the dismissed students.