Parliament’s education committee to hear from students deported from Egypt

JUBA – South Sudanese students who were deported from Egypt by the embassy in Cairo will on Thursday next week attend a parliamentary session of committee on education that is expected to summon ministers of foreign affairs and higher education over the mass deportation of students from the north African country.

Speaking to Sudans Post on behalf of the deported students this evening, Bech Marial who was studying medicine like most of his colleagues said a meeting organized for them with the speaker of parliament Jemma Nunu Kumba by activist Edmund Yakani was successful and that they have been invited to parliament on Thursday next week.

“We had a privilege this evening to have a successful meeting with the Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament Madam Jemma Nunu Kumba,” Marial told Sudans Post following the deported student’s meeting with Hon. Kumba.

“While in the meeting with her, she received a call and she withdrew for a few minutes before coming back to tell us that ‘I am very happy to see and know you guys, you will be taken to Parliament next Thursday,'” Marial added.

He further added that the speaker “left us with the committee of Jemma Nunu Kumba Foundation which will listen to all that had happened to us and our education and they will prepare what is going to be taken to the Parliament.”

For his part, Yakani who is the Executive Director of CEPO and who has been following the student deportation from Egypt thanked Kumba for taking time to listen to the many concerns from the students and confirmed a planned parliamentary session that will be attended by the speaker and the students next week.

“CEPO appreciates the positive response of the Right Honorable Speaker for attending to the deported students from Egypt during her first assessment of the situation of the students,” Yakani said.

“The Right Honorable Speaker will meet the students officially in the parliament with the presence of the parliamentary committee on education in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly on Thursday which will be the 3rd of November 2022 ,” Yakani revealed.

The prominent activist further said Kumba has pledged to “availing time to hear the students’ concern and agreed to handle the students concern officially before the parliament is a remarkable approach.”