Khartoum’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST): what are they teaching here?

Twelve Sudanese medical students, most carrying Western passports, are believed to have travelled to Turkey with the intention of crossing into Syria to join Islamist militant groups, the university’s dean of students said on Sunday.

In March, a group of medical students who had studied at University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) also travelled to Turkey en route to Syria.

If confirmed by authorities, the new group would be the second of its kind from Khartoum’s UMST, founded by a Sudanese Islamist lawmaker, to head to Syria this year.

“Twelve students, nine male and three female, in the faculty of medicine left for Turkey last Friday, most of them on Turkish Airlines, without the knowledge of their families,” Ahmed Babaker, UMST’s dean of students, told Reuters, adding that the Turkish authorities arrested three of them at an unspecified airport.

Babaker said seven carried British passports, two carried Canadian passports and one student had a U.S. passport. Two held Sudanese passports.

Babaker said the university had imposed measures after the first group left for Syria, including monitoring within the university and setting up guidance sessions for students.

This group, like the first, came from relatively well-off social backgrounds and lived most of their lives abroad. They moved back to Sudan for university studies.

“They were supposed to sit an exam last Friday and they tricked their families by saying they would study at their colleagues’ homes on Thursday. They left at dawn on Friday,” Babaker said.

An ISIS fighter carries the ISIS flag inside the held territory

The mother of one of the students who had been in Sudan on a visit discovered on Friday afternoon that her son’s passport was missing and called British authorities, Babaker said.

“The fact that the students travelled to Turkey indicates that they are in the direction of joining Islamist extremist groups. And the side that is closest to the Turkish border are areas under the control of Islamic State,” he said.

The latest apparent influx from Sudan also raises concerns about the religious discourse that students in Sudan, which itself promotes a conservative brand of Islam, may be subjected to.

A spokespersons for both the British embassy in Khartoum and Britain’s Foreign Office in London said: “We can confirm that seven British nationals have travelled to Turkey from Sudan. We are providing consular assistance and are working closely with the Turkish police to establish their whereabouts,” said home office spokeswoman.