25 December 2024
Feb 26, 2019 by 500 Words Magazine -

NISS Forces Attack Students at UMST

On 24 February 2019, students at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) were attacked by National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) forces after joining the ongoing peaceful protests.

The protests began within the campus at approximately 2 pm. Once NISS forces entered the university campus and began to attack students and throw tear gas, other students began to disperse and hid in classrooms. However, NISS forces entered the classrooms and threw tear gas into the classrooms, dragged students out and assaulted them. Many students were arrested. A few students have been reported as missing.

NISS forces attacked students, especially females, as well as their parents once they arrived to pick them up from the university. A few UMST students and other social media users have shared accounts as well as footage of the NISS attack within the UMST campus. Footage shared on social media reveals students being cornered, lined up and beaten. Female students were forced to take off their head scarves as a tactic to humiliate them.

UMST is a private co-educational medical-oriented university established in 1995. UMST is also known as Mamoun Humeida University, named after its owner Mamoun Mohamed Ali Humeida, who is also the health minister in Sudan. Reports say Humid and his son Mohammed Ali invited NISS officers into the university in order to attack students, and supervised and watched as the attacks on students unfolded. Humeida is a member of the ruling National Congress Party. He owns a private hospital as well as several other training centres. One of the leading universities in Sudan, UMST is one of 12 universities in Sudan registered by the World Directory of Medical Schools.

UMST has been continuously exposed to controversy. One of the most recent and known controversies is its exposure to the influence of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as many of its medical students have been successfully recruited by ISIS.

It was announced on Monday, 25 February that UMST will temporarily close. However, UMST students, professors and staff have publicly spoken out against the attack and announced that they will be on strike until further notice.

On the same day of the UMST attack, mass protests took place in Omdurman and Burri under the name موكب 24 فبراير, which translates to the Procession of 24 February. Social media users have shared graphic images and footage of protesters who have sustained critical injuries from live bullets as well as tear gas canisters, which NISS forces fired at protesters.

The following day, on Monday, 25 February, anti-government protests continued across Sudan under the name موكب الر فض (Procession of Rejection) or موكب 25 فبراير (Procession of 25 February). Large numbers gathered at the Jackson intersection and marched on.

Students of Ahfad University for Women (AUW), a women-only private higher education university in Omdurman and one of the top universities in Sudan, joined the procession. NISS forces fired tear gas at students within the campus.

Tear gas was also fired within the campus of the renowned Sudan University of Science and Technology (SUST).

The protests in Sudan began on 19 December 2018, triggered by a hike in prices of basic commodities such as bread and fuel shortages. Thousands of protesters have taken to streets across Sudan, calling for the downfall of President Omar Al Bashir and his regime. Government forces have responded to protests with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas. 

Protests intensified this week when Al Bashir delivered a televised broadcast speech on Friday, 22 February, announcing a one-year long state of emergency, amongst other things.

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Feb 24, 2019

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