Opposition figure detained at Sudan airport

A prominent opposition figure, Abdelmunim Omar Ibrahim, was detained in Khartoum Airport on Sunday night. The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has also summoned opposition members for questioning.

In the past week, what seems to be a series of detentions and summons of opposition members by the security apparatus led to the arrests of Ibrahim, the head of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) office abroad, and Mohamed El Amin Abdelnabi, a prominent member of the National Umma Party on Saturday.

Ibrahim, who was heading for Saudi Arabia where he works, has been taken to an unknown destination, the SCP said in a statement to Radio Dabanga. The NISS further summoned Professor Haider El Safi Shibbo, the political secretary of the Republican Party and, Dr Hoda Ibrahim Kambal, the women's secretary of the party, for questioning about the party's activities last Sunday and Monday.

The President of the SCP, Omar El Digeir, condemned the arrests and summons of political parties and activists in Khartoum and other Sudanese states. “They have become part of the daily reality, a human rights an economic crisis and a crackdown on the media, by the National Congress Party's regime.”

El Digeir was released from detention by the NISS on 25 December. His detention was carried out in early November, in a period when 25 SCP leaders and members were also detained, following the party's activities against harsh economic measures.

Paris meetings

This month, a meeting of the opposition parties and movements under the Sudan Appeal is planned to be held in Paris, El Digeir said. Additionally, Sudan’s Information Minister Ahmed Balal Osman told reporters yesterday that an informal consultations meeting may take place in Paris next week between the government and the Sudan Appeal.

El Digeir predicted that the Sudan Appeal meeting will result in new decisions on how to unite the opposition parties, or coordinate them “to bring about the radical change sought by the Sudanese people protesting on the streets.

“The differences among the opposition parties in their tactics and methods is natural, but the goal must be a unity of the parties with one clear vision in order to convince the public and give them the motivation and hope to mobilise all the energies for change,” the SCP president concluded his statement.