Sudanese govt frees most detainees in east town-activist

KHARTOUM, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Sudan has released most of the 25 protesters who went on hunger strike this month in east Sudan after they were detained for demonstrating against armed forces who opened fire on a march, a student activist said.

The detainees held in the town of Kassala, about 420 km (260 miles) east of the capital, had been protesting their detention without charge.

“Most of those on hunger strike have now been released, but there are two more who were moved to Khartoum, and we have no news of them,” said Saleh Mohamed Saleh, a student activist from Kassala in the Red Sea state.

Saleh said about 170 people were arrested in Port Sudan, Sudan’s main port on its eastern Red Sea coast, and about 13 of them remained in custody, including the secretary-general of the eastern opposition Beja Congress party, Abdullah Moussa Abdullah.

Sudanese officials confirmed detainees had been released over the past week or more but did not give numbers.

Dozens were arrested during demonstrations in Port Sudan and Kassala in Sudan’s poor east last month, after police opened fire on a march in January to demand more political rights. Troops killed 20 people and wounded at least 40 others.

Police said they opened fire after coming under attack, but said the demonstrators did not have guns.

The Beja Congress, like other Sudanese opposition groups, accuses Khartoum of neglecting remote regions of the country in favour of the centre, which is the powerbase of the traditional ruling elite.