Darfur female students protest against burning of university residence
May 4, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Dozens of female students from Darfur have staged a demonstration in Khartoum North on Monday against what they claimed to be deliberate torching of their residence.
Police report attributed the fire to a faulty electrical wiring while the students stressed it was caused by arson, saying electricity was properly functioning until the police submitted their report.
Students’ belongings including laptops and graduation projects burst into flames.
The students staged a protest for about half an hour shouting slogans against the government before they were dispersed by the police who chased them inside the alleys near the dorms.
Last October, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) forcefully evicted 70 female Darfur students from the Al-Zahra residence at the University of Khartoum.
Multiple reports from Khartoum say university students from Darfur region, particularly some ethnic groups, are systematically attacked by the supporters of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum universities.
The student violence started after the death of a leading member of the NCP student organisation, Mohamed Awad, during clashing between supporters of the ruling party and students from Darfur region at the East Nile University in Khartoum North last Wednesday.
In a meeting held on Monday, opposition figures and civil society activists formed a committee to provide support and legal protection for Darfurian students targeted by the security service or attacked by student groups loyal to the ruling party.
Speaking in the meeting the leader of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) Farouk Abu Issa said Darfur students are systematically attacked. He further said there is a team of lawyer to provide legal support and doctors to treat the wounded underscoring that some students fear arrest if they go to hospitals.
Since Sunday, Opposition parties accused the NCP of orchestrating a campaign of violence on Darfurian activists in the Sudanese universities. While, the former Islamist combatants, Sa’ihoun, launched an initiative calling to stop violence in the Sudanese universities.
The alliance of Darfur student groups issued a statement denying the involvement of Darfurian students in the death of Awad last week, and called to arrest the perpetrators of attacks on Darfur students.
A student member of the alliance said that more than 80 students from Darfur were injured and 88 others detained in attacks in various universities including University of Khartoum, Al-Nilin University, East Nile University and Al-Azhari University.
The Darfur lawyers committee has also condemned the arrest campaigns against Darfur students, calling upon authorities to launch a just and fair investigation in the incidents.
Several students died in recent years as a result of political disputes including the death of the university student al-Tayeb Salih, who was kidnapped in January 2015 and later found dead.
In 2014, a student at the University of Nyala by the name of Mohamed Suleiman was also abducted and his dead body was later found in the outskirts of Nyala.
Also in 2013, Ali Abakar, a third year, a third year economic student at the University of Khartoum, was shot dead when security forces and the police entered the campus, using tear gas and live bullets to disperse a demonstration organised by Darfur students at University of Khartoum.
In December 2013, four students from Darfur studying at University of Gazira, in central Sudan including Mohamed Younis Nil Hamid, Adel Mohamed Ahmed and al-Sadiq Abdalla Yaquob and Nu’man Ahmed were killed in clashes with pro-government students.
Also three students at the University of Zalingi were killed in 2012 during a visit by the former joint chief mediator in Darfur Djibril Bassolé to the university campus to hold a lecture on the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).
(ST)