Students arrested in Khartoum, flogged in Port Sudan

On Monday, security forces in Khartoum carried out a massive arrest campaign against pro-opposition students. On Tuesday two Port Sudan university students, convicted for disturbing the public order, received 25 lashes. In Khartoum, two students were sentenced to 20 lashes. A large number of pro-opposition students were arrested by the security from different places in Khartoum on Monday evening, amid the escalating violence at the University of Khartoum. Among the detained are student leaders Tajelsir Ja’afar from the New Forces Movement, Mu’amar Musa from the Reform Now Party, and Mohamed Salah from the Democratic Front. The Council of Deans of the University of Khartoum decided in a meeting that ended late on Monday evening to immediately suspend a number of classes for an indefinite period. The faculties of the Education, Nursing and Public Health, and Laboratory Sciences were excluded from the measure. Clashes between opposition students and student militants, backed by security forces and university guards, have intensified in the last weeks at the university’s campuses. The militants are reacting violently to the students’ demands for a thorough investigation into the killing of a Darfuri student during a peaceful demonstration at the University of Khartoum’s main campus on 11 March, and the removal of security forces stationed at the university gates and the campus.  Lashes On Tuesday, a Port Sudan court carried out the sentence of flogging of two university students, convicted for disturbing the public order. The students had joined a protest on Friday against the deterioration of the living conditions in the city. They were arrested, and sentenced with 25 lashes each, a student told Radio Dabanga from Port Sudan. In Khartoum North, the Criminal Court sentenced two students of the University of Khartoum to 20 lashes on Tuesday. “Mohamed Ibrahim Abakar, a second-year student at the Faculty of Agriculture student, and female student Adawiya Musa had been arrested during the recent clashes at the campus,” a lawyer reported to Radio Dabanga. “The judge called the sentence a disciplinary measure, as Abakar had been caught holding Musa’s hand.” Photo: University of Khartoum students fleeing tear gas at the campus, 11 March 2014 Related: Violence at University of Khartoum in Sudan continues, Chancellor resigns (12 May 2014) Sudan security arrests activist Mohamed Salah again (21 March 2014) ‘More than 15 Darfuri students and human rights activists detained’: Darfur Bar (21 March 2014)Khartoum security arrests 110 Darfuri students, attacks protesters (14 March 2014) One dies as troops fire on Darfuri students in Khartoum (11 March 2014)