Rights group calls for probe into abuse of female students from Darfur
October 15, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Sudanese authorities to investigate abuses, including sexual assaults, committed against female students from the Darfur region, which occurred during a forcible eviction from the University of Khartoum.
On 5 October, security agents stormed the Zahra dormitory complex and forcibly evicted about 70 female students from the building.
Authorities said they asked the female students to vacate the ramshackle residence in September in order to conduct routine maintenance works, but that students had refused to leave despite being offered alternative accommodation.
According to HRW, Darfurian students “protested, saying they had nowhere else to go”.
The rights group condemned the violent intervention of security forces to evict the female students.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, HRW alleged that officers beat and interrogated students before transferring them to the Omdurman Women’s Prison .
The statement further said the security agents “groped (the students), taunted them and threatened to assault them sexually”.
“A women’s rights group, No to Women’s Oppression, reported that security officials raiding the dorms forced some women to undress in the dorms, photographed them, and threatened to use the photos against them,” the group said.
Fifteen students are still being held without charge in Omdurman prison and have been denied access to legal representation and their families.
“The unacknowledged detention of individuals or the concealment of the whereabouts or fate of those detained by state agents constitutes an enforced disappearance, which are absolutely prohibited under international law,” said HRW.
In a press conference held on Saturday, the alliance of Darfur university student associations slammed the lack of action by the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), saying it has become a mere tool to implement the policies of Sudan’s ruling party.
The pro-government General Union of Sudanese Students on Sunday accused Darfur rebel groups and opposition parties of inflaming the situation, by encouraging students to refuse to leave the building in order to “provoke chaos, inciting demonstrations and vandalism”.
(ST)