African Centre concerned about Sudanese activist’s safety

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has expressed its “deep concerns” for the safety of Dr Sandra Faroug Kadouda, who was detained on Sunday.

“Dr Kadouda was forcibly taken from her car by a group of unidentified men in Omdurman, Khartoum, at around 5pm on Sunday 12 April,” the ACJPS said in a statement on Monday. She was reportedly on her way to to the anti-election sit-in at the headquarters of the National Umma Party in Omdurman.

She was intercepted whilst speaking to a friend on the phone. “The men who stopped her car were overheard over the telephone line, refusing to show their identification when she requested it, and instructing her to switch off her phone. Family members found her car abandoned opposite El Morada School on El Morada street in Omdurman, with the keys still in the ignition, thirty minutes afterwards.”

Her family filed a criminal case, alleging kidnapping, at the Omdurman Central Police Station. They also completed a form provided to them at the central National Intelligence and Security Service offices in Africa street, Khartoum. The police and the NISS had no record of her detention, and instructed her relatives to return in two days for further information.

Dr Kadouda has chronic reactive hypoglycaemia which requires a special dietary regime and medical attention.

The outspoken activist on social and political issues has been detained previously by the NISS, on account of her peaceful activism, AJPS states. She is also a member of the Youth Committee against the construction of the Dal and Kajbar dams in northern Sudan.

ACJPS calls on the Sudanese government to “immediately take steps to investigate the incident and establish her whereabouts. If she is in custody, she should be protected from ill-treatment and guaranteed immediate and regular access to relatives, a lawyer and a medical doctor”.

Other detentions

On Sunday, the day before the general election would commence, several anti-election activists were held by NISS officers throughout the country.

Selma Adam Bineya, prominent member of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement, was taken from her house in Omdurman to an unknown destination.

Lawyers Mousa Juju and Naji Abdeljalil, El Nilein University student student Ibrahim Ahmed Juma, students Mousa Mohamed Osman and Haroun Kanjoum of the Omdurman Islamic University, and citizen Yousef Kafe were detained in Khartoum. 

Mohamed Yousef, Ahmed El Tayeb, and Ali Omar El Faki, leading members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), were detained in Ed Duweim, White Nile state.

In El Suki, near Sinja in eastern Sudan, anti-election activists Shumo Hamid Zakaria, Adnan Jamaleldin, and Taha Mohamed Taha were taken into custody. Student Husam Mohamed Adam was held in Port Sudan.