Student, trader protests quashed in Sudan capital

Police and security forces dispersed two peaceful demonstrations in Khartoum and Omdurman on Monday. Students demonstrated against the ongoing war in Darfur and other conflicts in Sudan, while market traders demanded an end to the removal of their shops.

Affiliates of the United Popular Front (UPF) addressed the hundreds of students and delivered three speeches in the stadium in the Sudanese capital, Jackson square, and El Hurriya street near El Sug El Arabi. 

One of the protesters told Radio Dabanga that the demonstrations then moved through downtown Khartoum. People chanted slogans that called for the overthrow of the regime, and others advocating for those affected by the construction of the Kajbar dam.

Police and security forces dispersed the protests using batons and teargas, and a number of students were injured and detained, the protester said. The exact number is still to be ascertained.

The UPF organised a student protest against current attacks and bombardments in Darfur’s Jebel Marra region, in Khartoum on Thursday 28 January. Three students were reportedly detained by the security service.

(Photos of RD)

Omdurman

A demonstration of market traders in Omdurman the same day was also dispersed by police. The traders, whose shops have been removed by authorities in the past two days, displayed banners reading ‘no racism or regionalism’ in front of the Sudanese parliament. Several traders at the protest claimed that they have been subjected to racial profiling by a senior official of Omdurman locality during the removal of the shops.

They asked the National Assembly to intervene and help them to get their shops back in a memorandum they handed to the deputy chairman of the legislation and justice Committee, Azhari Widaa.

The police arrived in four vehicles to disperse the demonstrators in front of the parliament, while the guards closed the National Assembly building to prevent access to protesters.