NISS arrests dozens of Khartoum University’s alumni, activists say

April 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese activists said on Saturday that the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) has arrested dozens of Khartoum University’s graduates who protested silently this morning against selling the headquarters of their University.

More than thirty names were circulated widely on social media sites by activists, saying that they were taken by NISS agents to one of their notorious buildings in Khartoum North district.

Many of the University’s graduates called for protests in Khartoum and other states to expression their rejection for the sale of the University premises.

In a press release on Friday, the graduates said “they will march peacefully to the office of the University’s Chancellor to hand over a memorandum on the current situation of the University”.

The graduates’ representatives asserted that they will meet with the Chancellor to inform him about their rejection to sell the buildings of the University. Also, they said they would ask him to demand the release of the detained students.

Clashes between the students of the University and the police were erupted recently following reports about the government’s plans to move the oldest university in the country, found in 1902, to Soba district, 19 km south of Khartoum.

Last week clashes erupted between students of different universities across the country and the police, the toughest was at Kordofan University during campus’ elections where one student was killed and dozens were injured.

In a statement released last Wednesday, Amnesty International denounced intensification of repression of students in the country and called to investigate the killing of an 18-year-old Sudanese university in Al Obeid.

Abubakar Hassan Mohamed Taha, a first year engineering student at the University of Kordofan, died of a gunshot wound to the head.

“This violent attack is yet another shocking episode in a series of human rights violations against university students across Sudan and underlines the government’s determination to put out the last vestiges of dissent,” Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

(ST)