Smoke rises out of central Khartoum as cars burn during a
demonstration over the deaths of four students from the
war-torn western region of Darfur in Gezira state.
REUTERS/Stringer
Police in Sudan have used teargas and batons to repel
rock-throwing students as tension simmered over the deaths of
four students following a protest against tuition fees.
The police moved in as more than 400 students marched from
the University of Khartoum through the centre of the capital
shouting "The people want to overthrow the regime" and
"Killing a student is killing a nation", a Reuters witness
said.
The students pelted police cars with rocks for more than an
hour. Heavy traffic made it harder for the security forces to
break up the demonstration but calm had returned to the
streets by mid-afternoon.
Sudan has avoided the mass protests that unseated rulers in
Tunisia, Egypt and Libya last year, but rising food prices
and other grievances have inspired smaller demonstrations.
On Saturday, activists blamed authorities for the deaths of
four students whose bodies were discovered in a canal in a
farming region south of Khartoum after a protest earlier in
the week.
Students from Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur had
staged the sit-in at a university there to demand they be
exempted from tuition fees, as a presidential decree allowed,
according to a member of a Darfur student association.
He said some students had disappeared after supporters of
Sudan's ruling National Congress Party broke up the protest.
Sudan's justice ministry decided to form a committee to
investigate the deaths at Gezira University, state news
agency SUNA reported on Sunday.
Police in Gezira state said late on Friday that two students
had been found dead in a canal and a third was missing. They
said there were no signs of violence.
Small demonstrations erupted across Sudan in June after the
government scaled back fuel subsidies and took other
austerity measures to contain an economic crisis brought on
by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan last year.
Those protests mostly petered out after a security crackdown
and the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
An insurgency in Darfur has lasted almost a decade. Rebels
took up arms there complaining the government had neglected
the region.
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