Students Shot Dead At Sudan's Omdurman University

One of the eight seriously wounded students after the
NISS, supporting NCP students, opened fire at a discussion
corner in the University of Omdurman (photo by student)

Members of the Darfur Students Association at the University of Omdurman sustained injuries when pro-government students attacked them inside a discussion corner on Thursday, supported by gunfire from the security service.

Eight students were seriously wounded when security agents, backing students that belong to the ruling party's (NCP) youth wing, entered the corner and opened fire with live ammunition. "This is the first time I've seen them using live bullets," a student activist told Radio Dabanga.

Students had gathered to attend a speech, organised by students who are members of Minni Minawi's rebel SLM-MM. The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has arrested a number of the participants, including Jehaina Hatem. She was brought to Shendi prison in Bahri, the office of the security service. They dropped her in Asuk El Arabi, the Arabic market in Khartoum, far away from Omdurman, late on Thursday night.

The seriously wounded students are being treated in the hospital, the student activist added. They managed to obtain and fill out a form at the police station (Form 8, attached below) before receiving medical treatment. "But most wounded are being treated in houses, to avoid being arrested by the NISS in the hospital."

The eight seriously injured students are Mohamed Fadl Ezerg, Mutasim Ali Abdallah, Mohamed Ezein Mohamed, Mousa Dao El Bet, Amar Abakr Younis, Solomun Yagoub Solomun, Badawi Ishag Badawi, and Saleh Ibrahim.

Omdurman University's Darfur Students Association and regional branches have condemned the violence by the ruling party supporting students and the security forces, and the use of live ammunition.

What happened to the students, the activist told Radio Dabanga, "will not stop them". "We will continue to speak out against the government, but more resilient."

The speech by the SLM-MM students was aimed against the trial of Mohamed El Bagari, who stands accused of killing a senior member of the Islamist student wing of the ruling National Congress Party, who was found dead at the Sharg El Nil College in Khartoum on 29 April. Clashes erupted at the college that day after militant NCP students attacked students attending a meeting of the Darfur Student Association. During the first hearing in the Khartoum Bahri Criminal Court last week, two Darfuri students were arrested when they protested the trial.