3 more South Sudanese students deported from Egypt

CAIRO – At least three more students were again deported to South Sudan from Egypt on Monday morning, bringing the total number of the deportees since last week to six, according to one of the students who is already in Juba.

Bech Marial, a student who was studying medicine at Tanta University before deportation said his colleagues were put on an EgyptAir plane this morning at Cairo International Airport and are expected to arrive in Juba between the hours of 3:00PM and 4:00PM.

“They have already been forced into the plane. We are expecting them in Juba anytime or at around 3 or 4PM today,” he told Sudans Post in Juba, adding that “we are heading to the CID station to get an explanation why we were deported.”

He said those deported on Monday are Kur Malueth Yak, a second-year student of medicine at Ain Shams University, Bol Deng Anei, a second-year student of medicine at Cairo University, and Ajak Arou Mayom, a sixth-year student of medicine at Alexandria University.

Four other students are still in detention and are expected to be deported on Friday and Monday next week, Bech added.

Late last month, hundreds of students studying on government scholarship in Egypt staged a sit-in at the embassy in Cairo, occupying it for several days before Egyptian security intervention that resulted in the wounding of at least 9 of the students and the arrest of 10 others.

Those who remained at the sit-in in the embassy later on left after they promised by the ministry of higher education that their situation would be addressed and their colleagues released from Egyptian detention.