Sudan security detains anti-election supporters in Sennar

The national security service detained seven members of the National Concensus Forces in Sennar state on Thursday while they were preparing for their campaign to boycott the elections in Sudan.

Agents detained the seven from different places in Sinja, in Sennar, where a symposium was scheduled to take place today (Friday). It was part of the launch of the anti-election 'Leave!' campaign by opposition figures who signed the Sudan call on 3 December 2014.

Sarah Nugdallah, Secretary-General of the National Umma Party (NUP), said in Dabanga’s Sudanese Files programme this week that coordination committees had been formed to organise seminars in Sennar and other states in Sudan. However, four organisers were detained in El Gezira state on 5 February, and yesterday, seven committee members were detained in Sinja.

The detained members as of yesterday are El Mahi Suleiman from the Sudanese Congress Party of the Sennar branch, student Shommo Hamid Zakaria, member of the Independent Student Congress at the University of Sennar, Marwan Abdel Moneim and Mohamed Nugdullah of the National Umma Party, Yousif Awad and Omar El Nur from the Democratic Front, and Abul Gader El Yas from the Sudanese Communist Party.

A statement by the National Consensus Forces (a coalition of Sudanese opposition parties) described the arrest as 'aiming to suppress the forces of the Sudan Call from democratically and peacefully expressing the Leave! Campaign'. The statement called on the security service to immediately release the detainees.