LONDON, United Kingdom, April 20, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ —
The brutal killing of an 18-year-old Sudanese university student by intelligence agents yesterday must be urgently and impartially investigated, Amnesty International said today, as repression of students in the country intensifies.
Abubakar Hassan Mohamed Taha, a first year engineering student at the University of Kordofan in Al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State, died of a gunshot wound to the head. Another 27 students were injured, five of them seriously. It is the latest incident in a brutal crackdown against students that began in 2012 and has seen scores killed, injured or detained, sometimes incommunicado.
“This violent attack is yet another shocking episode in of a string of human rights violations against university students across Sudan and underlines the government’s shameful determination to put out the last vestiges of dissent,” Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
“The reprehensible violence by state agents against the students must be thoroughly and impartially investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”
The students had been marching peacefully towards the office of students’ union to submit their list of pro-opposition candidates for union elections due to be held that day.
Shortly after the march had begun, plainclothes agents of the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) intercepted them in an attempt to stop them from taking part in the elections.
One student told Amnesty International that he saw 15 pick-up trucks arriving at the university full of NISS agents armed with AK47 rifles and pistols, who then started shooting indiscriminately at the crowd.
Last month, security officers beat up and fired tear gas at students at the same university, injuring 15, during a peaceful demonstration against poor service delivery. They arrested seven others.
Background
The University of Kordofan Council of Deans issued a statement on 19 April expressing regret for theviolent incident and acknowledging Abubaker’s death. However, it made no mention of involvement of NISS agents. Instead, described the incident as clashes between two rival students groups around the union elections.
Amnesty International has documented an intense and sustained crackdown by the police and security forces since 2012 on the activities of students in universities across Sudan. Over this period scores of protestors have been killed, injured or detained, sometimes incommunicado.
Since January this year, a number of cases of excessive use of force against students have been reported at El-Geneina University in West Darfur State, University of Bakhit El Rhida in White Nile State, University of Kordofan,Al-Zaiem Al-Azhari in Khartoum North and the University of Khartoum. One student was killed at El-Geneina University, and dozens of students were arrested.
