One woman died and around 30 people were injured when an attack drill at Strathmore University in Nairobi caused panic among students and staff. "We can confirm we have one fatality this evening. One staff member by name Esther Kidambi, age 33 years, who has died from severe injuries," University Communication Director Betty Ngala said in a statement. Kindambi allegedly jumped from the third floor of the building. Four students were taken last evening to intensive care units. The university's Deputy Vice Chancellor George Njenga said two are at the Nairobi West Hospital, one at Gertrude Hospital, and another at Nairobi Hospital. Sixteen others were admitted at the general ward at the Nairobi West Hospital. Among the injured was a professor, who is said to have jumped from fourth floor. Several universities have carried out security drills after al Shabaab militants attacked Garissa University College on April 2, killing 148 people. The latest security drill was carried out at Kenyatta University Meru campus. During the drill, six students were injured and later admitted at the Meru Level 5 Hospital. #alShabaab #News

A 21-year-old college student has been arrested for threatening to “execute approximately 16 white male students and or staff” at the University of Chicago and “any number of white policemen” to avenge the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in US District Court in Chicago. Jabari R. Dean was arrested Monday and charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced. According to the affidavit, Dean wrote in an online post that he planned to show up at the University of Chicago’s campus quad Monday morning armed with an assault rifle and two semiautomatic pistols and would “do my part to rid the world of the white devils.” An FBI special agent said in the affidavit that the post was written by Dean, who threatened to kill approximately 16 white students and university staff members—“which is the same number of times Mcdonald was killed.” Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, was fatally shot last year by a white Chicago police officer, who fired a total of 16 shots—all of the ammunition in his clip. Jason Van Dyke, a 14-year veteran of the police force, was charged with first-degree murder for the fatal confrontation. A newly released, graphic video of the killing has sparked unrest in Chicago. On Monday, federal authorities confronted Dean before the 10 AM deadline given in the post, and he was arrested without incident, according to the prosecutor’s office. Dean was a student at nearby University of Illinois at Chicago. His post was deleted, but authorities were given a copy of it, according to the affidavit. Dean, the document said, admitted to a federal investigator that he had posted it from his phone. According to the Chicago Tribune, Dean “appeared in federal court Monday afternoon wearing a red UIC hooded sweatshirt and jeans, and kept his arms at his sides as he quietly confirmed that he understood the proceedings. He will be held in jail until Tuesday, when he is expected to be released to the custody of his mother.” If convicted, Dean could face up to five years in prison, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the ongoing racial tension felt across the country. The severity of threats made against students and faculty have added to grave concerns about the ability of intellectuals to work safely in American educational settings, particularly at the university level where education is elective. Targeting scholars harms the entire educational community by undermining universities' abilities to meet their educational, research, and social responsibilities. #News

Nearly four months after his arrest, Naser bin Ghaith's family still have no idea where he was taken, why he was arrested, and what charges he may face. They are terrified of speaking to the press or raising his case with the authorities. There has been no official comment about his arrest; in fact, his arrest has not even been confirmed. According to Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor, bin Ghaith's family was warned not to talk to the media or approach human rights organizations. “Fear is the dominant factor when it comes to speaking about someone taken by the security authorities,” he said. Mansoor also claimed that family members were warned that if they did not stop complaining, they, too, would be interrogated, lose their jobs, or, more ominously, things will go badly for their loved one in detention. Human rights advocates and released prisoners allege that those detained in secret prisons in the UAE are often subjected to torture in order to extract a false confession. They claim that prisoners are moved to an ordinary jail once the signs of torture have healed. Only then their families and lawyers can see them. UAE Authorities have denied this. Mansoor said that the government of the UAE is no longer bothered by international pressure and condemnation from human rights organizations. When asked what he expects bin Ghaith is doing while in detention, Mansoor replied, “From what I know of him he will be on hunger strike. He is a person who takes hard decisions and implements them immediately.” #News #UAE

Today marks day 250 of Abdul Jalil Al-Singace's hunger strike in protest of the torture and mistreatment of prisoners at Bahrain's Jau Prison, where he is currently serving a life sentence for charges related to his peaceful activism. Both Endangered Scholars Worldwide and Scholars at Risk are gravely concerned over reports that Al-Singace, a professor of mechanical engineering and human rights activist, is suffering severe health complications, including respiratory and musculoskeletal issues and sickle cell disease, for which he is in need of urgent medical attention. To observe this day, Scholars at Risk is reissuing a call for letters respectfully urging authorities to reconsider any convictions related to Al-Singace's peaceful exercise of free speech and association and to ensure his access to medical attention while in custody in accordance with international human rights standards. Take action with SAR by signing a letter of appeal on behalf of Al-Singace and sharing this message with your networks. #Bahrain

Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the ongoing racial tension experienced by students, faculty, and staff of color in educational institutions across the country. This issue was recently brought into the national media spotlight through a series of student protests, beginning at the University of Missouri and spreading to campuses across the country, including The New School. The University of Missouri’s protests gained the most media attention due to several headline-worthy elements, and they served as a catalyst for students around the nation to call attention and demand change to the widespread inequity, racism, and fear experienced by people of color in American educational institutions. These protests have sparked a national conversation, but mere conversation is not enough. The ongoing and increasing severity of threats made against students and faculty of color generate great concern regarding the ability of intellectuals to work safely in American educational settings, particularly at the university level where education is elective. Targeting scholars is particularly distressing, and it harms the entire educational community by undermining universities' abilities to meet their educational, research, and social responsibilities. #Voices #Statement

Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life in prison on September 2014 for advocating basic economic, cultural, religious, and political rights for the Uyghur people. Reports have emerged that the academic has asked his mother and brother to help him appeal his case. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has also recently taken a stand on the issue. To learn more about Tohti, please follow this link to a short documentary. The article below was published by China Change: Ilham Tohti, the Uighur scholar and public intellectual currently serving a life sentence in prison, has called on his family to engage lawyers and lodge an appeal for him through the Chinese judicial system. Ilham made the request on the second occasion that family has visited him since his sentence on September 23, 2014. Ilham’s mother and brother traveled to the No. 1 Prison in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, on October 15. Ilham’s health is stable despite his being kept in solitary confinement, his lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan told Radio Free Asia, relating what Ilham’s brother had told him. Ilham also asked family to send him books. He firmly believes he’s not guilty of the charge of “separatism” leveled against him. His wife and one of his children visited him in July; the jail allows a visitation once every three months. The Beijing-based dissident Hu Jia told Voice of America last year: “I have known Ilham for years. The first time we met, Ilham swore that his fondest hope was for Uighurs to co-exist peacefully within the Chinese nation. He’s opposed to separatism or violence in any form. All he wants is equality, dignity, and peaceful co-existence for his people. In all the years I’ve known him both as a person and as a scholar, I never witnessed the kind of behavior that the government is accusing him of. To take a moderate, scholarly campaigner for peace like Ilham Tohti, and to tar him with a label that’s the exact opposite of what he is—it’s just preposterous." "In mainland China, Ilham Tohti is the most—really the only—prominent and influential Uighur voice," Hu Jia continued. "By sentencing him to life in prison, the Chinese authorities show that they don’t want the Uighurs to have any voice. The fate of Ilham Tohti is the fate of all Uighurs living in China.” #China #News

More than two weeks of violence have sparked concerns of a full-scale uprising. The arson attack on Joseph's Tomb in Nablus came as Palestinians called for a "Friday of revolution" against Israel, and clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip saw Israelis kill two Palestinians, one a student, and wound 98. President Obama has called on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to tamp down on inflammatory rhetoric. The violence began on October 1 when a suspected cell of the Islamist movement Hamas murdered a Jewish couple in front of their children in the West Bank. The killings followed several clashes at east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound in September between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths. In New York UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Friday's "reprehensible" attack at the opening of a Security Council meeting on the violence. Endangered Scholars Worldwide is gravely concerned about the escalation of this conflict and its negative reverberations on higher education. We stand in solidarity with those who have been injured or have lost loved ones. #News #Israel

Maâti Monjib is a political historian at the University of Mohammed V-Rabat. Born in Morocco, he got his first PhD in France in North African politics and another in Senegal in African political history. He is a member of the Institut des Études Africaines (IEA; Institute for African Studies) in Rabat and has, since early 2014, been the chairman of the NGO Freedom Now–Comité pour la protection de la liberté de la presse et d’expression and the Association marocaine de journalisme d’investigation (AMJI; Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism). He is the author of La Monarchie marocaine et la lutte pour le pouvoir: Hassan II face à l'opposition nationale (The Moroccan Monarchy and the Struggle for Power: Hassan II Facing the National Opposition) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992), A Political Biography of Mehdi Ben Barka, with Z. Daoud (Paris: Éditions Michalon, 1996–2000) and the editor of Islamists Versus Secularists in Morocco, ed. (Amsterdam: IKV, 2009). A long campaign of harassment and intimidation was waged against him, including threats and defamatory articles in newspapers and on news sites. The incidences are as follows: He founded and directed the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Communication in Rabat, which trained hundreds of Moroccan journalists in investigative techniques and civic journalism. In December 2014, he had to shut down the institute after repeated interference from the state. On 31 August 2015, he was detained briefly at the airport when returning from France. He was told that he was under investigation for “endangering state security.” On 14 September 2015, he was interrogated and accused of tarnishing Morocco’s image abroad, using foreign funds to promote a foreign agenda and destabilizing citizens’ allegiance to their institutions. His associates were also questioned. On 16 September 2015, he went on hunger strike for the first time after being barred from leaving Morocco for a conference in Barcelona. The IEA board refused to give him permission to travel to Norway to attend two academic events related to his expertise. On 6 October 2015, he went on hunger strike again to protest restrictions against his freedom of movement and his academic freedom. Sign the petition here. #News

Mahmoud Hussein, a 19-year-old student, has spent over 18 months in pretrial detention in Egypt after being arrested for wearing a shirt with the “Nation Without Torture Campaign” logo. On August 26, Hussein was taken to Cairo’s Abbassia Court for an unexpected court proceeding, according to Amnesty International. He had appeared in court two days earlier when his detention was renewed, so he was not expected in court for another six weeks. Under Egyptian law, a person can be held in pretrial detention for two years, if accused of crimes punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty. The accusations against Mahmoud Hussein include offenses that carry the penalty of life imprisonment, but they relate solely to a videotaped “confession” that he was forced to give under torture after his arrest in January. During the pretrial period, the defendant must appear in court every 45 days before a judge, who can order either the defendant's release or renew the detention. In Mahmoud Hussein’s case, the authorities have on several occasions failed to transfer him to court before the 45-day period has expired, meaning that he was being held without a court order and, therefore, in contravention of the law. Judicial authorities realized this after the August 24 court proceeding, and thus ordered Mahmoud Hussein back in court two days later. According to Hussein's lawyer, an order for 45 days of detention was announced on August 26 to act retrospectively and make up for the 30 to 35 days when Hussein was held without a court order.

Enoh Meyomesse, one of the five “Writers at Risk” cases selected by PEN last year, was released this week after spending more than three harrowing years in the overcrowded Kondengui Central Prison in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé. PEN International and PEN England believe that the charges against the poet, essayist, and political activist were politically motivated and that he was imprisoned because of his criticism of the government and political activism. “It’s funny to see the prison from outside,” Meyomesse told writer Patrice Nganang, who campaigned for his release, as reported by The Guardian. “They practically threw me outside. It was quite forceful. But if it is kicking me outside to freedom, then there’s nothing to complain about.” Meyomesse, who is the author of over 15 books and the recipient of the 2012 Oxfam Novib/PEN Free Expression Award, was arrested in Yaoundé in 2011 and charged, along with three other men, with attempting to organize a coup and aggravated theft. He was sent to a prison in Bertoua in the Eastern Province of Cameroon and held in solitary confinement and, according to PEN, complete darkness for 30 days. In 2012, after 13 months in prison, Meyomesse was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for supposed complicity in the theft and illegal sale of gold. As PEN reported: “No witnesses or evidence were presented during the trial, and he was not allowed to testify in his own defense. According to Meyomesse, he was sentenced ‘without any proof of wrong-doing on my part, without any witnesses, without any complainants, and more than that, after having been tortured during 30 days by an officer of the military.’” During his time in prison, Meyomesse suffered from several medical conditions but continued to write and publish. In November 2012 he self-published a collection of poetry, Poème carcéral: Poésie du pénitencier de Kondengui, which is available online (in French) or to download here. In 2013 English PEN launched a crowd-sourced translation of the volume in order to raise funds for Meyomesse and his family and to create greater awareness of his case. In a powerful piece on the immeasurable value of receiving books in prison, Meyomesse wrote: “They are like oxygen, they cannot be replaced.” Endangered Scholars Worldwide hopes Meyomesse will be back among his own bookshelves soon.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide is gravely concerned about a Bahraini court's decision, issued on May 14, 2015, to deport Masaud Mirza Jaffar Jahromi, who had his citizenship revoked on January 31, along with 70 other people. The decision to revoke his passport was based on an order from the Minister of Interior and allegations of “damage to the interests of the country and loyalty to the king.” On the 14, the court issued an order for Jahromi's deportation and a fine of 100 dinars. Jahromi holds a PhD in telecommunication networking from the University of Kent at Canterbury in the UK, and he was the chairman of the Telecommunication Engineering Department at Ahlia University. In April 2011, he was imprisoned for five months on charges related to the peaceful exercise of his right to free expression and assembly. He was released on bail on September 12, 2011, with a trial pending for November 2. He remained suspended from his position at the university. In January 2015, Jahromi found himself on the list of Bahraini citizens whose passports were being revoked. Since November 2012, Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of over 100 persons either through direct statements by the Ministry of Interior or through court orders. Endangered Scholars Worldwide calls on the Government of Bahrain to do the following: Halt the deportation of Masaud Mirza Jaffar Jahromi, as it is in violation of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Reinstate Masaud Mirza Jaffar Jahromi's citizenship, and; Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. #Bahrain #News

An Egyptian court sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi to death, and this ruling also applies to another 106 people. Among them is Emad Shahin, the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and the professor of political science. Shahin was accused of colluding with Iran and the Palestinian group Hama to destabilize Egypt and was thus sentenced in absentia to death. The scholar currently lives in the US and is a visiting professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. #Egypt #Professor