9 students wounded, 10 missing as Egyptian security storm South Sudan embassy sit-in

 

JUBA – At least nine South Sudanese students have been wounded and ten others are missing after Egyptian security forces allegedly acting on orders of South Sudan ambassador to Egypt Joseph Moum Majak stormed a student sit-in at the embassy of the world’s youngest country in Cairo.

This comes less than a week after the students studying under government scholarship staged a sit-in at the embassy to demand services, they said they were promised by the government when applying for Egyptian scholarship.

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, Taban, not his real name, said Egyptian security forces were deployed on Saturday after the students refused to leave the embassy compound demanding that the government first address their grievances.

“We started the sit-in on September 29 and we met the ambassador five times. During our last meeting with the ambassador, we couldn’t come to an amicable solution with the ambassador and later on, he involved leaders of South Sudanese communities in Cairo in order for them to come and convince us to leave,” the student said.

“So, after the community leaders came, we told them that we were promised for a full scholarship and what we wanted is that the government fulfil this promise and if they cannot, they should first inform our parents back home and then we decide whether we continue or not,” he said.

He said the ambassador and the community leaders left the meeting with a promise to come back to them with what was to be next but never return and the next day, Monday October 3, they were surprised that electricity and water were cut from the embassy in order to make it hard for them to continue the sit in inside.

“The following day, on Monday at around 6:00PM, the Egyptian police were deployed outside and they brought cars in an attempt to remove us from the embassy. We refused to board the cars back to our universities because we didn’t agree to such an arrangement with the ambassador,” he said.

“Yesterday, the Egyptian police attacked one of the students who is called Sebit Wadar, a second year medical student at Ain Shams University and they throw a rock at him almost killing him and now he is in a very critical situation. One of us was also critically wounded and there are seven others with light wounds,” he said.

The student further called on the government of South Sudan to intervene, saying they are in the embassy to demand their rights, adding that ten of the students are missing and their whereabouts remains unknown.

Now ten of our colleagues have been kidnapped by the Egyptian police and we don’t know where they are.

“I call on the government in Juba especially the ministry of higher education science and technology to come to this process and help us out. We are here in our embassy, it is our home and we will not leave this place until when all our grievances are addressed once and for all,” he added.

When contacted by Sudans Post, Amb. Muom was un reachable at the time of this writings