Sudan security detains more Darfuri students in Khartoum

The detention campaign by the Sudanese security apparatus against Darfuri students in the Sudanese capital is still continuing. At least 12 more Darfuri students were held in Khartoum on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Mohamed Adam Boko was detained in front of the gate of Bahri University on Wednesday,” a student from Darfur reported to Radio Dabanga. “Yet, most of the students were held inside their homes.”

He said that many Darfuri students fear they may be charged with killing the head of the National Islamist Students Movement, the student wing of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), last week, though authorities in Khartoum announced that the perpetrators have been arrested.

Dozens of students from Darfur were detained after the head of the National Islamist Students Movement, the student wing of the ruling party, was killed in clashes at Sharg El Nil College on 29 April.

About 150 militant NCP students, backed by university guards, reportedly attacked members of the Darfur Students Association who were having a meeting at the campus. Seven Darfuri students were seriously wounded. The campus was raided again on Thursday. At El Ahliya University in Omdurman, students were beaten and detained on Thursday too.

Racism

In a statement on Wednesday, the Sudanese Solidarity Committee against Racial Discrimination, abbreviated “Tasami” in Arabic, said that the current targeting of Darfuri students in the capital is part of a campaign against them that started much earlier.

Pointing to the killing of dozens of students from Darfur in various parts of the country, and the eviction of Darfuri students from Khartoum dormitories last year, Tasami stated that the “current hate campaign is a continuation of the systematic exclusion targeting of certain ethnic groups and the implementation of ethnic cleansing policies”.

The Solidarity Committee called on the Sudanese people to “form a broad solidarity coalition”, to protect the Darfuri students “from oppression and racial discrimination”.

Another opposition group, the New Democratic Forces Movement (HAG), has launched a “No to Racism” campaign against “the regime’s militia targeting of Darfuri students”.

It called on all Sudanese to join the campaign, and continue their struggle until “the Khartoum regime is overthrown”.