Sudan police detain 62 students after campus protest

KHARTOUM, July 31 (AFP) — Sudanese riot police stormed a university campus Thursday, detaining 62 protestors after they demonstrated for student union elections, police spokesman Major General Adel Sidahmed said.

The students were charged with carrying out “subversive acts” after what police described as a “riot” in which they held lecturers and other students hostage at the University of Juba in Khartoum campus in the suburb of Kadaru, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the city centre.

Riot police commander Major General Abdel Basit Saad Jubarah said 15 students were “slightly” injured in the unrest, Sidahmed said.

The police spokesman blamed the protest on southern students from the African National Front and supporters of the National Democratic Alliance, an opposition unbrella group which includes the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The university now includes northern as well as southern students but was originally based in the southern garrison town of Juba, from where it was moved two decades ago when the SPLA launched Sudan’s protracted civil war.