By Spy Uganda
More than 100 Sudanese detainees, including senior politicians, started a hunger strike yesterday in protest of the detention conditions they are being held under, news agencies reported.
In a statement, the Defence Committee for the Unlawfully Detained and Martyrs of Arbitrary Killings said: “More than 100 detainees held unlawfully in Soba prison entered today in an open hunger strike due to their unjustified and illegal detention.”
Civilian politicians Khalid Omer Yousif and Wagdi Salih are taking part in the hunger strike, Abdelqayom Awad, a member of Yousif’s Sudanese Congress Party, said.
The politicians face corruption charges apparently stemming from their work on a taskforce dismantling the network of ousted President Omar Al-Bashir.
In the related development, Sudan has summoned four ambassadors over the participation of their diplomatic vehicles in protests in the country, according to local media on Wednesday.
Agencies said that foreign ministry summoned the ambassador of an Arab country and three western envoys, without identifying them.
The ministry informed the ambassadors of its protest over the participation of diplomatic vehicles belonging to them in demonstrations in the capital Khartoum.
The Agencies pointed out that the Arab ambassador apologized to the Sudanese government, after he explained that one of the drivers in the embassy had used the car without their knowledge.
There was no immediate comment from the Sudanese Foreign Ministry on the report, but on Jan. 27, the ruling Sovereign Council considered that the activities of some diplomatic missions in Khartoum “contradict diplomatic norms and violate the country’s sovereignty.”
Since last October 25, Sudan has witnessed protests in response to exceptional measures taken by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, most notably the imposition of a state of emergency and the dissolution of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government, a move decried by political forces as a “military coup”.
