Two students were wounded and three others were arrested during a demonstration by the Darfur Students Association on Tuesday. It started at the Omdurman Islamic University and moved to El Shigla Market, where citizens joined the demonstration.
The students carried banners rejecting the administrative referendum in Darfur and the aerial bombardments of the Jebel Marra from where thousands of people have fled to El Geneina and other places.
One of the student leaders told Radio Dabanga that they had been addressed about what is happening in Darfur. Following this, they took to the streets, where they were attacked by security agents and the police who used tear gas on the demonstrators.
The students hold the government and the Darfur Regional Authority responsible for the referendum. In a statement they condemned the ‘genocide’ as well as the destruction of infrastructure carried by the government in Darfur and other places of Sudan. They specifically mentioned genocide in El Geneina town and the public murder of student Salah Gamar.
Referendum
A student leader said to Radio Dabanga the goal of the referendum is to change the original map of Darfur and giving it a new identity. He accused the government of displacing two-thirds of the indigenous population of Darfur from their land. This land is seized by migrant groups.
The statement calls on political forces and civil society organisations for solidarity to thwart the scheme of dismantling the country's territorial integrity.
The Darfur University Students Association include in their statement the “refusal to dismantle the camps for the displaced. They describe it as “a red line and call on the international and regional community and Unamid to be committed to their moral and humanitarian obligation to protect the innocents”.