Sit-in in Sudan’s capital for release of detainees

The Sudanese Committee of Solidarity with the Victims of the September Demonstrations in cooperation with other civil society organisations held a sit-in in Khartoum on Monday, demanding the release of all political detainees in the country.

The protesters wore aprons with the text “Release the detainees”, and raised banners reading “Release our home country”.

Solidarity Committee coordinator Dr Jalal Mustafa Mohamed told Dabanga that the sit-in in the Khartoum II district was attended by dozens of representatives of various civil society organisations, political parties, student associations, and youth members of the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of Sudanese opposition parties).

He said that they will continue holding peaceful protests, “until all the political detainees are released, and public freedoms have been restored.”

Dr Asha El Karib, a leading civil society member, confirmed to Dabanga that the sit-in was successful. She explained that the underlying idea is to encourage the Sudanese people to join their protests “against the tyranny of the Khartoum regime”.

Sudan Appeal

In a press statement issued on Monday, the NCF demanded the release of all political detainees, including  Faroug Abu Eisa, leader of the NCF, Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the Civil Society Initiative, and Farah El Agar, legal consultant of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.  

The three lawyers were detained by security officers inside their homes in Khartoum on 6 December, a day after they had returned from Addis Ababa, where Abu Eisa and Madani had signed the Sudan Appeal, together with the head of the National Umma Part (NUP), El Sadig El Mahdi, and leaders of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements). They are accused of undermining the constitution, charges punishable with life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The prosecution of the security apparatus have also issued an arrest warrant for El Mahdi, who did not return to his home country so far. Furthermore, it filed a complaint against the NUP, with the aim to end the party’s license.

The NCF stressed in its statement on Monday that threats to dissolve opposition parties, and the detention of activists “will not deter the political opposition forces from intensifying the struggle to overthrow the corrupt regime of the ruling National Congress Party”.

On Saturday, 14 political parties and civil society organisations in Omdurman symbolically added their signatures to the Sudan Appeal, and its Joint Action Charter.

In the two-page Sudan Appeal communiqué, the allied opposition forces call for the ending of the civil wars in the country, the dismantling of the one-party system, and the rebuilding of Sudan based on democratic principles and equal citizenship. The signatories agreed that if a peaceful regime change cannot be achieved by a broad national dialogue, it should be enforced by a popular uprising.