Sudan arrests 2 opposition leaders, confiscate dailies

By Adel Abdul Rahim and Bahram Abdel Moneim

KHARTOUM (AA) – Sudanese authorities arrested two opposition leaders and confiscated six dailies on Sunday amid tension over price hikes.

In a statement, the opposition Sudanese Congress Party said security forces detained former party leader Ibrahim al-Sheikh and the party's human rights secretary Jalal Mustafa.

“Security forces arrested party leaders from their homes in Khartoum in an attempt to exercise its usual policy suppression," party leader Omar al-Dukair said.

Authorities also took away Sunday’s copies of six newspapers.

"Our newspaper was confiscated from the printing house,” Louai Abdel Rahman, secretary of al-Qarar newspaper, told Anadolu Agency.

Editor of Akhbar al-Watan newspaper, Hanadi al-Siddiq, said reasons of confiscating her daily were not yet clear.

"It is likely that because of our honest and transparent coverage of the consequences of the price rises,” she said in a statement.

Protests erupted in Sudan in recent days over price hikes in basic commodities following the latest lifting of subsidies by the government.

Sudan has repeatedly lifted subsidies in an attempt to rescue its economy, which has sharply declined despite the lifting of U.S. sanctions last October.

In December 2016, Sudan witnessed nationwide civil disobedience to protest the lifting of subsides on fuel and electricity.

More than 200 people were killed in September 2013 during protests in cities and towns across Sudan after President Omar al-Bashir announced an end to fuel subsidies and the introduction of other austerity measures.