(The International News) Sudanese authorities on Saturday shut a university after four students, originally from the conflict-plagued Darfur region, were found dead following an alleged crackdown on a tuition protest. The order coincided with the arrest of students who tried to demonstrate in Khartoum after holding a news conference about the deaths, which they blame on authorities and their “militia.“GeziraUniversity activities are suspended after the drowning of four students,” the official SUNA news agency said in a brief alert sent by SMS. GeziraUniversity is in El Gezira state, south of Khartoum. The Darfur Students Association of Gezira University announced on Saturday that Al Sadiq Yakoub Abdullah and Al Noman Ahmed Gorshi had been found dead along with Mohammed Yunis Neil and Adel Mohammed Ahmed Hammad. Activists had reported the deaths of Neil and Hammad on Friday, when police confirmed that they recovered two bodies from a canal near the university. “Students identified them as their colleagues. The Darfur Students Association said all four had gone missing after participating in a peaceful sit-in which followed meetings with university and government officials.“We had 80 students arrested and dozens injured” when the pro-government Student Union disrupted the sit-in, the Darfur students said in a statement.
Further Reading: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-147305
Sudan activists urge more protests after student deaths
(Reuters) Sudanese activists blamed authorities on Saturday for the deaths of four student protesters whose bodies were discovered in a canal near a provincial university and called for further demonstrations against the government. State news agency SUNA reported all activities at GeziraUniversity – located in an agricultural region south of Khartoum – had been suspended after four students “drowned”. Students from Darfur – a western region the size of Spain that has been torn by war for nearly a decade – had staged a sit-in at GeziraUniversity demanding an exemption from tuition fees they say a presidential decree required, a spokesman for a Darfur student association said. He said the sit-in was broken up on Wednesday by supporters of the ruling National Congress Party. A number of students disappeared and three were found dead on Friday in the canal near the university, said the spokesman who asked not to be named. Police in Gezira state confirmed late on Friday two students had been found dead in a canal, and a third was missing, but said there were no signs of violence. Sudanese youth activist groups including Change Now and Girifna issued statements blaming security forces for the students’ deaths and calling for protests. Security forces also detained 25 students from Khartoum’s NileinUniversity who were protesting the deaths, Jibril Adam, spokesman for the Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said.
Further Reading: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-sudan-studentsbre8b70dv-20121208,0
Iran warships dock in Sudan
(Y Net News) Two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan on Saturday, a witness said, marking the second port call by the Iranian navy in Sudan in five weeks. The Sudanese military said it was a “normal” port call but Israeli officials have expressed concern about arms smuggling through Sudan. Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad had initially announced the warship visit for November 30. “It is part of diplomatic and military exchanges between the two countries,” and will last for three days, he told reporters on Friday night. A pair of Iranian navy vessels, the supply ship Kharg and corvette Admiral Naghdi, spent about two days at Port Sudan in late October. Meanwhile, a new report sparked concerns that Iran is able to smuggle weapons into Syria. The report suggested that Iranian oil tankers are sending incorrect satellite signals that confuse global tracking systems in an attempt to conceal voyages made by other ships to Syria, which, like Iran, is subject to international sanctions.
Further Reading: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4317103,00.html
Darfur yellow fever epidemic: ‘Africa’s worst in decades’, WHO
(Radio Dabanga) The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the Darfur yellow fever epidemic is “Africa’s worst in decades”, Radio Dabanga has learned on Friday, 7 December. Anshu Banerjee, a WHO country representative, declared that the yellow fever outbreak in Darfur could now “definitely” be classed as the largest one since at least 1990. In addition, the WHO released an update stating that as of 4 December a total of 732 suspected cases of yellow fever have been reported in Darfur, including 165 deaths. A different report from the WHO and the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health indicated the figures comprise a period starting on 2 September this year. The disease, according to the WHO, has been reported in 33 out of 64 localities in Darfur so far. According to the WHO, laboratory tests conducted at the National Public Health Laboratory in Khartoum confirmed yellow fever in 40 clinical samples. It added the tests were run with the support from the US Naval Medical Unit 3 (NAMRU-3) and WHOCollaboratingCenter for Emerging Infectious Diseases. A comprehensive assessment of the outbreak is ongoing, WHO says, to obtain additional epidemiological, laboratory and entomological information to understand the evolution of the outbreak and the risk of the epidemic. On another occasion, the WHO announced that “fighting and banditry makes access [to parts of Darfur] particularly difficult”, adding that healthcare is provided almost entirely by aid agencies. In addition, it stated that people between the ages of 15 and 30 comprise nearly half of the yellow fever cases. Besides, it continued, about a quarter of the infected are children aged between five and 15.
Further Reading: http://www.radiodabanga.org/node/39406
Ex-Darfur Rebels Threaten to Ditch Peace Deal Over Attack On Troops
(Sudan Tribune, All Africa) The former Darfur rebel the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) has threatened to withdraw commitment to the peace deal it signed with the Sudanese government last year over an assault against its troops this week as the authorities maintained that the action was taken against insurgents. LJM’s leader Al-Tijani Al-Sissi told reporters in the capital Khartoum on Thursday that his group might walk out of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) it signed with the government in mid-July 2011 after their troops were attacked by the Sudanese army (SAF) in the suburbs of the provincial capital of NorthDarfurState, El Fashir, on Wednesday. The ex-rebel group says that two of its fighters were killed and three others were arrested in the attack that occurred as their troops were on stopped on the road between El Fashir and Kutum town but North Darfur authorities claim that the attack was directed against forces of the rebel coalition Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF). The former rebel leader who heads the DDPD-mandated Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) criticized what he described as the official media propaganda about the army’s repulsing of an attack by SRF forces aiming to shell El Fashir, demanding an immediate stop to it. Al-Sissi said that the incident could affect the DDPD and reduce the chances of its success.
Further Reading: http://allafrica.com/stories/201212071609.html