The Darfuri University Students Association has announced that about 13 students were arrested by security agents after peaceful protests in Khartoum last week.

The assembly’s foreign relations secretary Fowzi Abdullah told Radio Tamazuj that the National Security and Intelligence Services have been targeting Darfur students since the start of this academic year.

Fawzi pointed out that the problem started when Darfur students demanded exemptions for tuition fees, in accordance with the Abuja and Doha peace agreements on Darfur, but administration officials refused.

He explained that the security agents brought two members of the association in front of a judge in Wad Nubawi Court in Omdurman.

He claimed they also wounded12 Darfur students from Sudan University of Science and Technology and Omdurman’s University of the Holy Quran and Islamic Sciences.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Ziauddin, the spokesman for the Arab Socialist Baath Party and member of the opposition alliance, said they support the Darfur students. Ziauddin told Radio Tamazuj from Khartoum that Darfur students have legitimate rights to be exempted for tuition fees.

The security service had arrested Mohammed Ziauddin on Wednesday in Khartoum when he was going to participate in a press conference organized by Darfur students. He was interrogated before being released later.