SCP leadership detained by Sudan’s security service

Agents of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained nine of the leaders of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) in Omdurman and Shambat on Wednesday.

Reports say that NISS agents first detained the SCP President, Omar Yousif El Digeir, from his home in Omdurman. Eight other members of the SCP leadership were detained from the Party headquarters in Shambat.

This brings the total number oF SCP leaders detained to 21. They include Ibrahim El Sheikh, the former President, the Deputy President and the Secretary General of the Party.

On Wednesday Dr El Fateh El Sayed on behalf of the SCP leadership told Radio Dabanga that the purpose of this fierce security attack is to cripple the Party’s opposition against the government's economic decisions, and to prevent it from communicating with the Sudanese people.

He asserted to Radio Dabanga that “this campaign will fail because the SCP is a party of institutions, not of individuals”.

He stressed that “the Party will continue to oppose the economic measures and reach out to the grassroots in order to explain the seriousness of these measures on the lives and livelihood of the citizens”.

NUP solidarity

The National Umma Party (NUP) branded the detention the SCP leaders “a blatant abduction, attack on rights and freedoms, and systematic targeting of the SCP”.

On Wednesday, NUP Secretary-General, Sarah Nugdullah, said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that “the SCP has exercised its constitutional right to refuse the unjust economic measures through peaceful mass speeches, which made the regime’s crime more serious by deepening the political and economic crisis”.

Nugdullah expressed the solidarity of her party with detainees of the SCP, the doctors, and all the political detainees.

In 2014, Ibrahim El Sheikh was detained for three months. According to the charges, he had humiliated the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by the NISS, at a symposium by calling them “janjaweed with no religion or ethics, raping women, abusing and killing civilians”.