The Sudanese Congress Party on Tuesday accused the government authorities in Port Sudan of continuing to target its members by banning and confiscating their national identity card numbers.
In a statement obtained by Radio Tamazuj, the party said that the national identity card of one of its lawyers was recently banned.
“The de facto authority, through its embassy in the city of Juba, notified lawyer Hammad Ibrahim Hamdan, a member of the legal sector, that his national identity card number is banned, preventing him from renewing his passport without disclosing any reasons,” the statement said.
The party accused the government authorities in Port Sudan, through their political arm, the National Congress Party, of confiscating the legitimate right of Sudanese citizens to obtain and renew identification documents, as happened with party member Hanan Hassan Khalifa.
“Continuing the same authoritarian approach adopted by the de facto authority in Port Sudan, which lacks will and decisions through the dissolved terrorist National Congress Party, by confiscating the legitimate right of citizens to obtain and renew identification documents, as happened with Hanan Hassan Khalifa, a member of the legal sector of the party a few days ago, the Sudanese embassy in the city of Juba on the morning of Monday, July 22, 2024, notified lawyer Hammad Ibrahim Hamdan, a member of the legal sector of the Sudanese Congress Party, that his national ID number is banned, preventing him from renewing his passport without explaining the details,” the statement read in part.
“The Sudanese Congress Party affirms its stance against the illegal and unqualified de facto authority in Port Sudan’s crime of confiscating citizens’ rights and settling political scores with its members by explicitly targeting them with ID number and passport bans,” the statement added: “We condemn this legal violation, which we will confront through our legal sector by legal and institutional means. This only strengthens our commitment to our declared principled and ethical stances of not siding with either party of the cursed April 15 war and working with our allies in the Democratic and Civil Forces Coordination to stop and end it through peaceful negotiations.”
Rihab Al-Mubarak, the spokesperson for the Sudanese Emergency Lawyers Committee, told this publication that Radio Tamazuj, the lawyer Hammad Ibrahim, who hails from El Daein in Eastern Darfur, was officially informed by the Sudanese embassy in Juba that he cannot renew his passport.
“The responsible official treated lawyer Hammad Ibrahim inappropriately and informed him that his problem had no solution,” he stated.
She noted that the campaign to confiscate passports by the Port Sudan government is intensifying and continuing against thousands of Sudanese for racial reasons.