Darfuri activist released by Sudanese authorities
May 23, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Amnesty International on Thursday reported that, according to information the human rights group had received on 23 April, Haidar Mahmoud Abderrahman Manis, a Sudanese student activist had been released from detention, having been held since 28 March.
Witnesses told Amnesty International (AI) that Manis was arrested in the Setta Haj Youssef market, on the outskirts of Khartoum North, by four men in civilian clothes. The car he was taken away in was believed to belong to Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
Manis, who comes from El Fashir, in North Darfur, is a member of the Darfur University Students’ Association.
AI reports that Mania had allegedly given speeches on a number of campuses in the days preceding his arrest about the situation in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Rebels have been fighting the government since 2003 in Darfur, since June 2011 in South Kordofan and since August 2011 in Blue Nile. In November 2011 Darfur’s three main rebel groups formed a coalition with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) to form the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), which vows to overthrow the Khartoum regime.
Amnesty International said they were ‘not aware of any further details of Haidar Mahmoud Abderrahman Manis’s release, or the conditions in which he was held during his detention.’
(ST)