Sudan varsity confirms 12 left for Turkey
Sudan varsity confirms 12 left for Turkey
Twelve students, including British, Canadian, Sudanese and US citizens are feared to have travelled from Khartoum to Turkey to try to join the ISIS group, their university’s dean told AFP Sunday.
Another group of British students of Sudanese origin from the same private University of Medical Sciences and Technology travelled to Turkey in March and it is believed they crossed into Syria.
“We confirmed reports from multiple parties that 12 medical students at the university left for Turkey on Friday,” dean Dr Ahmed Babikir told AFP.
Khartoum airport authorities confirmed the group had travelled to Turkey and the students’ families said they had not seen them since Friday and were unable to find their passports, Babikir added.
It was likely they were trying to reach Syria to join ISIS because they were still sitting their final exams and had not warned their families they were leaving, Dr Babikir said.
“Logic says that they travelled to join the Daesh organisation,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Seven of the missing students are British, two Canadian, one American and two are Sudanese nationals, Dr Babikir said, although all are understood to be of Sudanese origin. Three of the twelve students were women, Dr Babikir added, declining to name any of the students.
Meanwhile, Canberra was on Sunday attempting to verify whether an Australian ISIS group fighter, notorious for being photographed with severed heads, had survived a drone attack after a report said he was still alive.
Australian media last week reported that two of the country’s most wanted ISIS jihadists, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, were believed killed in a drone strike in Syria. But highly-classified photographs of the Predator strike have only confirmed the death of Elomar, with no indications that Sharrouf also perished, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
