It was a normal day for Gasim Mahmoud, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Khartoum (UofK), and his friends preparing for what is meant to be their penultimate academic year in what seemed like another monotonous day in October in the Martyr Abu Dujanah Student Dormitory.
However, on 19 October 2026, they were confronted by a sudden announcement by a delegate of the National Students Welfare Fund (NSWF), the governing body for all governmental student dormitories at the UofK. “All students housed in the dormitory will be evicted and transported to the dormitories in the Faculty of Education Campus in Omdurman,” stated the delegate according to Mahmoud. The alleged reason being: to accommodate the female students for a period of 20 days or less.
The students were sceptical and immediately formed the Abu Dujanah Student Dormitory Committee, which included Mahmoud. On the night of the same day of the announcement, the committee released a statement on Facebook refusing the orders of the NSWF. The statement included several points, notably:
“Reinstating the student population in Omdurman, during the current economic crisis, puts added pressure on the shoulders of the students and their families, which threatens the ability of the students to continue their educational process; the stability of the educational process requires the provision of the basics of the educational process from housing, study halls, etc, not the unstudied decisions that aim to showcase a fake image of fake stability; historically, students were never allowed to reinstate in dormitories that they were expelled from, as exampled by what happened in the Barracks Dormitory and the Centre Dormitory years ago, and what happened in Abdalsalam Suleiman Dormitory a few days ago, where the students were kicked out without providing an alternative.”
“There are over 80 students currently housed in 86 rooms in Martyr Abu Dujanah Dormitory,” said Mahmoud. “Our fear, that has been precipitated by the inability of the administration to reinstate its populations in previous evictions, is that we are denied to return to Abu Dujanah. 80 students is a measly number compared to the number of students that inhabit the dormitory at the peak of its powers. How the administration will house these students is beyond me.”
According to Mahmoud, the dormitories of the Faculty of Education are not ready to house any students. “The rooms are doorless and without any fans,” he said. “Besides, the sewage system is defective.” He also pointed out how far away from the campus the proposed dormitories are, “The decision exacerbates, in the current economic crisis, the economic burden that faces the students to be transported daily between the dormitories in Shari’ Al Wadi in Omdurman and the Central Campus of UofK in Shari’ Al Nil.”
The Steering Engineering Committee (SEA) issued a statement on Facebook in solidarity with the students at Abu Dujanah Dormitory, holding the university’s administration responsible for housing all the students, calling for postponement of the academic year until all dormitories are ready to accommodate the students and rejecting the NSWF’s proposal to evict the students. On 20 October, the Association of Student Committees and Bodies, along with 12 student bodies from different faculties across the UofK, released a statement on the issue on Facebook holding the administration of the UofK, the NSWF and the student affairs responsible for providing the students with the necessary housing.
The Sudanist had contacted the UofK’s administration, the Faculty of Engineering representatives and the NSWF’s external relations office, but were met with complete silence. No administrative body had published any statement regarding the issue at hand.
The decision comes six months after the UofK, along with all universities across the country, shut down its off-campus examination and training centres. Back then, among the main concerns raised by the SEA was the unavailability of ready dormitories for the students. Now, however, Prime Minister Kamil Idris issued an order for the resumption of off-campus examination and training centres. This backtracking further raises questions about whether such decisions were well-studied in the first place and highlights the instability surrounding the resumption of educational facilities and services in Sudan, further disrupting the education of students whose schooling has already been interrupted by more than three and a half years of war.
As he ventures into this brave new world ahead of him, 2005-born Muathal Hisham tries to reflect on the experiences he encounters through poetry and prose. An aspiring bilingual essayist who aims to reinvent the way literature, art and music are interpreted, Muathal provides a thrilling dive into regional and international cultures, with the hope it might inspire positive change in his community. When he is not writing, Muathal is often busy video editing or studying for medical school at Ain Shams University. Find him @muathall on Instagram or visit his blog on Medium at @Muathal.
