Sudanese activist admitted to hospital in critical condition

Ibrahim Ali Majzoub, a 25-year-old Sudanese activist with the Girifna (We are Fed Up) movement and the Democratic Unionist Party, has been transferred from Kober Prison in Khartoum North, to a hospital nearby, said a family friend.

Mr Majzoub was arrested in early January by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) while addressing a crowd over Manasir displacement issue at Wadi Al Neel University in River Nile State, some 300km from Khartoum.

He was detained before being transferred to Kober where he was neither charged nor tried.

"His parents went to the hospital to visit him and his mother could not recognise him," said a family friend who requested to be identified only by initials R.S.

Girifna, a youth group he is involved with, found out that he had an appendix operation while in detention and had been in pain since the operation.

He was currently at the NISS organ's hospital and was reportedly in a critical condition.

Another youth activist, Taj Al Sir Gaafar, also affiliated with the Girifna and opposition party Haq, was on day five of his hunger strike.

Gaafar was protesting his detention since December 30 last year, without a trial.

Civil resistance

A student of University of Khartoum, Gaafar mobilised over 10,000 colleagues in a protest and subsequent sit-in which led to the closure of the university late December.

Another youth activist, Muhammad Idris Jeddo ,who formerly headed the Darfur Association of Students at the University of Khartoum, was also arrested last December.

Jeddo, whose detention sparked a protest inside one of the dorms, was held at Kober Prison pending trial or charges.

His friend, who requested not to be named, told the Africa Review that he was also kidnapped from a bus at gun point.

"When we asked about him, the security services told us that he will not be released until the protest at the University of Khartoum is called off," said the friend.

There has a crackdown on youth activists and students since December 2011 as a result of on-going protests at universities all over Sudan.

Youth activists have been more vocal in calling for regime-change and civil resistance in recent months in light of the Arab Spring in neighbouring countries.

Last week, six activists from Girifna were released after a two-week detention at Kober prison, following an event they organised to discuss the developmental and the human rights situation in eastern Sudan.


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