Security agents raid Sudan rights group's office

Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese security agents raided the headquarters of a human rights monitor Sunday and seized computers, a member of the group said, nearly two weeks after one of its founders was arrested.

National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) agents arrived at the office of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor in the early afternoon and searched the premises.

"They took all the computers, even some personal computers from the employees, and they also took some documents and they left the building," the group's executive manager Buraq al-Nazir told AFP by telephone.

He said the NISS did not close down the group, which documents human rights violations in Sudan.

A source who was there at the time said the raid came during a workshop, and that one of those attending it was detained.

The source gave no further details.

Britain's ambassador to Sudan, Peter Tibber, tweeted he was "concerned by raid on Sudan HR Monitor".

On December 6, the NISS detained Amin Makki Madani, a civil rights activist and one of the group's founders, shortly after he returned from Addis Ababa where he had signed a document aimed at uniting opposition to President Omar al-Bashir.

While Madani signed the document on behalf of civil society groups, other signatories included rebels and opposition parties.

Bashir, 70, seized power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup and won a 2010 election that was marred by opposition boycotts, with monitors saying the process failed to meet international standards.

The ruling National Congress Party has said Bashir will stand for reelection in April.