CAIRO: Hundreds of students hailing from Sudan's western region of Darfur demonstrated in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Wednesday against the killing of one of their colleagues at the hands of the security authorities. The victim, named Abdel-Hakim Isa, was a student at Omdurman Islamic University and he was affiliated to the Darfur rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Nur. Abdel-Hakim died on Monday, April 2, as a result of internal bleeding from being struck on the head, according to the autopsy report, which was given to his family after they were falsely informed by the authorities that he had died in a road accident. His family accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of killing the victim because of his political activism and support of the rebels. Video footage showed hundreds of people marching in the funeral procession of the victim's funeral procession which took place in Khartoum's sister-city of Omdurman on Wednesday. The protesting mourners were shouting slogans vowing retribution and supporting the SLM's leader as well as the indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Sudanese President Omer Bashir on the grounds of alleged atrocities committed in the course of a government counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur. Eye-witnesses said that police forces monitoring the event later moved in to disperse the protestors using teargas. The incident mirrors the killing in February 2010 of another student from Darfur named Mohamed Mosa. Darfur region is currently the scene of a low-intensity conflict whose pinnacle in 2003-2004 led to the death of more 300,000 people and displacement of 2.7 million, according to UN figures. The conflict erupted in 2003 when ethnic rebels accusing the government of neglecting the region took up arms, prompting Khartoum to unleash an abusive counterinsurgency. Khartoum has appeared to have escaped the fallout from the Arab Spring, but tensions exist below the surface. Bashir is increasingly unpopular, and is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, including genocide, for his response to the uprising in the western province of Darfur.
