THE SUDANESE Communist Party has condemned the arrest of the party’s general secretary Muhammad Mukhtar al-Khatib who was released in the early hours of this morning. 

Security forces detained him and political bureau member Salih Mahmoud at Khartoum airport on Thursday after they had returned from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. 

No information was available about the reason for their arrests or whether charges have been brought against the pair, but the party has previously been targeted because of the role it plays in the anti-junta protest movement.