Umma Party protesters hand memo to Sudan security

Khartoum:- On Sunday, dozens of women demonstrated in front of the buildings of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Khartoum for the release of Dr Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi.

 The women, mostly members of the National Umma Party (NUP), protested against the continued detention of NUP Co-Vice-President Dr Maryam El Mahdi, who was captured by NISS officers at Khartoum airport, on her return from Paris on 11 August. In the French capital, she had participated in a historical meeting between the leader of the NUP, El Sadig El Mahdi, and the leadership of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements).

 The meeting was concluded on 8 August with the signing of the Paris Declaration, in which both parties agreed to cooperate for a peaceful resolution of the civil wars in Sudan, and a democratic transformation.

 Rabah El Sadig, a prominent NUP cadre and sister of the detainee, told Radio Dabanga that the relatives and friends of Dr El Mahdi on Sunday demanded her immediate release, and “at least permission to visit her”. “Security officers accepted our memorandum that was refused the last time we wanted to hand it.”

 She said that the police took their banners, and tried to prevent them from handing the memorandum. “Yet, we insisted that we would only leave the place after submission of the memo.”

Radio Dabanga