Sudan’s presidential assistants assaulted, injured in London

June 7, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Presidential Assistant Nafi Ali Nafi sustained an injury on Wednesday when an angry Sudanese expatriate hurled a chair at him during a heated symposium organised by the Sudanese embassy in London.

The powerful figure of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) travelled this week to the capital city of the United Kingdom as he faced a barrage of criticism at home by fellow party hardliners over his leading role in signing an accord recognising the north Sudan sector of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as a “legal political party.”

Nafi was hosted by the Sudanese embassy in London on Wednesday, along with Presidential Adviser Mustafa Osman Isma’il, to address members of the Sudanese community in the UK. According to Sudan Tribune’s sources, those who turned up to attend were faced with tight security measures and had their mobile phones and cameras taken away by security personnel.

When the window for questions was opened towards the end of the symposium, Nafi was heckled by journalists and anti-government activists over his alleged responsibility for some of the well-known crimes committed during the rule of the current Islamist government, including the summary execution on 24 April 1990 of 28 army officers who attempted to stage a coup as well as atrocities committed in the western region of Darfur.

Eye-witnesses told Sudan Tribune that Nafi responded arrogantly to the questions, telling the audience that his government had no qualms about the execution of the army officers who attempted the coup. Then one attendant rose from his place and throw a chair that hit Nafi above his eyebrow, according to multiple sources.

The spokesman of Sudan’s foreign ministry Al-Obaid Adam Moraoah confirmed the incident but he said that the injury was “not severe.” He told the Sudanese Media Center (SMC), a website run by the country’s security apparatus, that Nafi is due to be back in Khartoum on Friday.

(ST)