Sudan seizes schools affiliated to Islamic groups
December 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM)- The Humanitarian Aid Commission, in Sudan, took control of the administrative offices of the schools of the African Council for Private Education (AFPE) owned by the Islamic Call Organization, one of the groups of the former ruling party.
The seizure of the AFPE buildings come in line with a recent law to dismantle the former ruling National Congress Party and its affiliated institutions and to confiscate their assets and property.
The AFPE includes 35 schools and 19 kindergartens in the states of Khartoum, Gezira, Gedaref, Kassala, and the Red Sea, in addition to schools in Egypt, Kenya, and Indonesia.
The advisor to the Director-General of Schools, Ali Al-Obaid, told Sudan Tribune on Monday that a team from the Humanitarian Aid Commission had come to the management offices of the African Foundation for Private Education with an order to vacate the administration buildings.
He expected the commission would conduct an audit for the schools.
Al-Obaid indicated that there is no information about the authority to which schools will be affiliated, adding they prefer to be integrated to the Ministry of Education so that their profits will be in the interest of the Sudanese government.
Al-Obaid added that at least 25 million pounds of school profits annually go to the Islamic Call Organization.
The teachers of AFPE schools had been on strike on 14 December to demand salary increases.
The Sudanese government previously banned the World Health Foundation and the African Society for Maternal and Child Welfare, which are affiliated with the Islamic Call Organization.
(ST)