Sudanese Congress Party leaders released

Former Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) leader Ibrahim El Sheikh and political secretary Abubakar Yousif were released after having been detained by the security apparatus for almost four weeks.

Two prominent leaders of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party were released by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Khartoum on Sunday.

Former Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) leader Ibrahim El Sheikh and political secretary Abubakar Yousif were set free after having been detained without charges for almost four weeks.

They were held, together with other party members by NISS agents on 19 July, following a visit to hundreds of Darfuri students who were stranded at a village south of Khartoum.

The SCP said in a press statement on Sunday evening that the detention “clearly reflects the regime’s position towards political parties linking with the people”.

The party pointed to the repeated detentions of SCP members by the security apparatus.

In end June, nine SCP activists were held from a seminar on cholera in Omdurman. They were released, also without charges, after six weeks.

El Sheikh and Yousif were detained as well in a wave of arrests of opposition party leaders following civil disobedience campaigns in November and December. In 2014, El Sheikh was held for more than three months for calling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by the NISS, unconstitutional.