Racial Profiling against Students from Darfur: NISS Technique to Quell Protests in Sudan.

05:01 PM December, 29 2018

Sudanese Online
Sudan Democracy First Group-
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It is not the first time and may not be the last, that the Government of Sudan, specially its security agency, singled out Darfuri students and labelled them as conspirators, traitors, instigators of protests…etc. For more details about the situation of Students from Darfur in Sudanese universities, please consult a report published by the Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG) in June 2018.

During the current of protests against Bashir government, which have started on 18 December 2018 in Atbara and then in many towns and villages across Sudan, the security forces raided a house in Sennar town on 23 December 2018 and detained 33 students from Darfur attending Sennar University. The students moved to the said houseas a temporary shelter before they travel back to their region, after the Sennar University students’ hostile was vacated by security forces a day before. On Sunday 23 December 2018, the 33 detainees were transferred to an undisclosed location in Khartoum. On the same day of transfer to Khartoum, the Chief of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), held a meeting with the press in which he described the detained students from Darfur as a cell affiliated with the Sudan Liberation Movement – Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nour faction and who received extensive training by the Mossad (the Israeli Intelligence Agency) to carry explosion and vandalism during the protests. Videos carried by the Sudan TV, other TV channels affiliated with the GoS and social media, showed fatigued students with clear traces of physical tortures, confessing their part in the instigation of the protest.

On 28 December 2018, NISS raided two residences in Khartoum, inhibited mainly by students from Darfur; one in the Darushab area and the other in Heilat Koko. A total of 16 students from Darfur were arrest and four of them were release earlier today 29 December 2018. The government spokesperson held a press conference in the evening of the 28 of December, in which he accused those students of being part of an armed cell that committed murder crimes during the protests of the past days.

It is obvious that the racial and ethnic profiling is featuring very high in the techniques used by the NISS action and discourse to antagonize the general population against Darfuri protestors and divide the unity of the protestors. Moreover, the NISS techniques has a religious elements (Mossad) to galvanize support from among the Muslim population. However, many statements,from across the political spectrum in Sudan, were issued in condemnation of the racial and ethnic profiling track adopted by the government.

SDFG would like to draw the attention of the international community and the human rights organizations to the following;

1- The seriousness and danger of the discourse and action adopted by NISS and its future implications.
2- The physical and psychological tortures, harsh treatment and the threat to the live of the detainees from Darfur during the current instability and uncertainty in Sudan.
We call upon all to mount pressure on the GoS to declare publicly the whereabouts of all detainees, especially those from Darfur, and allow their family and lawyers to visit them.