Police and security forces surrounded Holy Quran and Islamic Science University in Omdurman, as an attempt to stop the students’ street protests after the students submitted a memo to the university demanding the issues of lack of services, shortage of drinking water and sanitation that the university have long been suffering from.

Students threatened to go on protests in the streets if the university did not comply to their demands. It was also said that some students were armed of weapons such as axes and threatened to use violence against the protesting students in Al-Thawra where there is a students’ housing facility and dorm. President of Darfur students and Speaker of the university students podium, Hamid Rahmat-Allah stated to Dabanga Radio that the students submitted their memo to the secretary of the Students Affairs Dean. This memo was rejected. The students subsequently gave the university a time opportunity to meet their demands and establish reformation regarding the studying environment conditioned with the option of going out to protest in the streets. Rahmat-Allah added that the university called in the police and National Intelligence and Security Services as a precautionary procedure, additionally, there were 30 students armed with weapons including axes who threatened the students with violence in case the protests took place in the streets.

Peaceful expression as legal right is stated in the international agreement and conventions as well as the Sudanese Constitution, it shall be respected by everyone; violence should not be used, and the threat of violence should not occur as a way of prohibiting this basic and natural right. This is the right way to stop violence in universities, also, peaceful and positive interaction between universities and their students must be the way of facing and overcoming daily problems in a peaceful way.

Source: Dabanga Sudan