Vigil in Sudan’s Blue Nile state against detentions

The Resistance Committees active in the neighbourhoods of Ed Damazin, capital of Blue Nile state, carried out a protest vigil in front of the state government secretariat yesterday to condemn the detention of a number of students in Roseires on Tuesday.

Abdelaziz El Awad, a leading member of the Blue Nile state Resistance Committees, told Radio Dabanga after the protest that all activists in Ed Damazin and El Roseires gathered yesterday. They marched to the state government where they submitted a memorandum in which they expressed their strong opposition to this behaviour by army officers under the revolution government.

The students were detained by Military Intelligence officers when they were defending the position of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu) at the market of Guneis East.

The students were released late on Tuesday evening, after the intervention of the state governor. El Awad said that Military Intelligence did not file any official charges against the students.

On Wednesday, affiliates of SPLM-N El Hilu gave a political speech at the Grand Market of Ed Damazin, before they marched to the Guneis East market to continue their political speech, which was stopped by Military Intelligence agents on Tuesday.

The head of the rebel group for the government-controlled areas, Mohamed El Mustafa, condemned the detention of the students.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, he described the detention as “a clear violation of the Constitutional Document”.

El Mustafa renewed the movement’s position on the need to restructure the Sudan Armed Forces, including the government militias, into professional forces that work to enforce the law and protect the Constitution and the people without discrimination.

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