Sudanese security stops two opposition leaders from travelling to Paris

October 3, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese security agents prevented two leading opposition members from travelling to France and confiscated their passports on Sunday.

“On Sunday evening elements of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) at Khartoum Airport barred the leader of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) Ibrahim al-Sheikh and a leading member of the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) Sidiq Youssef from travelling and confiscated their passports,” said a statement issued by the National Consensus Forces (NCF).

Al-Sheikh in a message on a Whats’Up group explained he was travelling to Paris via Cairo. But he didn’t explain the purpose of their visit.

The alliance of the opposition leftist forces denounced the “authoritarian behaviour” of the Sudanese government saying the ban “provides a new evidence on the absurdity of its calls for dialogue and lack of credibility”.

The NCF further said that the government of the National Congress Party (NCP) “is not qualified to manage any dialogue leading to a peaceful democratic transformation”.

The opposition alliance is a signatory the Sudan Call with the National Umma Party, rebel alliance Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and civil society group.

The holdout groups says Khartoum has to implement a road map agreed with the African Union to create suitable conditions for the national dialogue inside the country and to hold an inclusive pre-dialogue meeting in Addis Ababa.

Despite its endorsement by the dialogue coordination committee in September 2014, the government and its allied parties refuse the participation of the political opposition forces in the preparatory meeting saying it should be limited to the rebel groups only.

Last June the Sudanese security prevented seven opponents from travelling to a European parliament meeting in France.

(ST)