Sudanese riot police on Monday fired tear gas into crowds of anti-government protesters in the capital Khartoum and it’s twin city of Omdurman.
Witnesses say the protesters poured onto the streets into districts of Khartoum and in Omdurman. They were demanding the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in power for more than two decades.
Sudanese have been agitating over the country’s worsening economic situation since December last year.
The agitation which started over the price of bread has been sustained for more than six weeks now spreading across cities in Sudan.
The key demand from the protesters isn’t about prices of bread anymore but an end to the Omar al-Bashir regime.
Shooting at protesters
Citing witnesses, AFP reports that the riot police speedily moved in to scatter Monday’s protest, firing tear gas at one of the rallies in Khartoum and Omdurman.
Protesters were however, defiant, chanting “freedom, peace, justice” as the police spray them with tear gas, according to witnesses.
Monday’s protests come on the back of the arrest of Mariam Sadi al-Mahdi the deputy head of the opposition Umma Party Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi last Wednesday.
Mariam, a medical doctor, is the daughter of Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, who now heads the Umma Party.
Her sister Rabah Sadi al-Mahdi told Reuters two security vehicles arrived at her home last week and whisked her away.
Professors and lecturers of Sudan’s oldest educational institution, University of Khartoum also held a sit-in protest on campus against al-Bashir’s government last week.
Mamduh al-Hassan, the group’s spokesman told AFP “More than 300 professors and lecturers of the university held a sit-in today inside the campus.”
Academics want Bashir out
Five hundred and thirty-one university staff members have already signed and listed several demands. They asked for a transitional government to be formed, stressing that al-Bashir is unfit to rule.
So far more than thirty people have been killed with rights groups saying the death toll could even be higher.
Bashir has vowed to continue as President, saying he would not be stampeded into leaving office by the ongoing protest.
He told his supporters last month “There’s only one road to power and that is through the ballot box. The Sudanese people will decide in 2020 who will govern them.”
He already has plans to run for the presidency for the third time in elections to be held in 2020. Bashir has blamed what he calls external conspirators for ongoing anti-government protests.
Source: Africafeeds.com
