Sudanese authorities block opposition activist figure from travelling to Cairo

March 8, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese authorities prevented the head of Darfur Bar Association (DBA) from boarding a flight heading to Cairo for medical treatment, said a press released on Thursday.

Mohamed al-Doma who is also a deputy the National Umma Party (NUP) leader had been arrested without charges following the protests against rising prices last January and released on 18 February.

In a statement released in Khartoum after the travel ban, the DBA said al-Doma had been blocked and his passport was retained his passport.

He was travelling to Cairo “for a follow-up medical treatment in Cairo as he was unable to do in February due to his detention,” said the statement.

The group pointed that his health conditions deteriorated as a result of the harsh conditions of his arrest in Shala prison of North Darfur State.

Opposition groups are set to meet next week in France, so they expect that opposition representatives be prevented from travelling abroad.

NUP leader Sadiq al-Mahdi is in Cairo since last month as he plans to take part in this meeting with the armed groups on the roadmap agreement signed with the government in 2016.

The statement further recalled that the DBA deputy chairman Salih Mahmoud Osman and the member of the Sudanese Communist Party leadership is still in prison without charge since last January.

Osman who is a laureate of the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought suffers from Chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

(ST)