Ismail El Tijani was just two years away from
graduating from an American university in Washington and receiving his
qualification. However, Ismail neither returned to his university nor to his family
in Khartoum ever since he left the house on the evening of 7 June 2019 just days
after the sit-in dispersal. He left his car with no clue as to where his whereabouts
were.
His mother, Sumaiya Osman, was surprised by the inability of the state and its
apparatuses to provide information about the fate of her son. She said information
about Ismail is important whether he is dead or alive.
State is not doing its duty
Sumaiya said, “We have searched all mortuaries, hospitals including looking into
records of police, immigration and passports. I even went to prisons and my family
members went to areas outside Khartoum but we did not find Ismail”, and
denounced police shortcoming.
She said it is the responsibility of the state and its security organs to search for the
missing people including her son Ismail. “The issue of the missing persons is the
responsibility of police and the intelligence services which are required to take
steps to reassure families that the state is concerned with their cause and suffering
and will not leave them alone in their search, hope, despair and pain,” she said.
Narrating the last hours of Ismail she said, “At 1:00 am on the same day of his
disappearance, Ismail called his friend and cousin who was in a wedding hall. His
cousin did not hear the ringing of the call on time and then walked out of the hall
to call him back but his mobile was switched off and remains off till now”.
While talking to the representative of Al Taghyeer Online, Sumaiya showed “a list
of outgoing calls from Ismail’s mobile”, she seemed to take a look at the list of
calls every time she felt the pangs of missing her son, who returned to Sudan after
14 years of stay abroad, only to find an ongoing popular revolution that stunned the
world, and decided to join it along with the youths of the neighborhood.
She adds, “I visited the persons who have been released from detention and they
told me some detainees are left behind and that some are unable to provide
information to assist their relatives to search for them because they have been
traumatized by detention”.
Sumaiya, who represents families of the missing persons in the competent
committee set up by the attorney general to probe sit-in dispersal, headed by Nabil
Adeep, said,” all committee members are working on the issue in a responsible
manner and with high professionalism to achieve justice”, adding that she
participated in the meetings and has sensed the seriousness of the committee.
