Sudanese protest for victims of war

Hundreds of Sudanese rallied on Thursday, including at a camp for people displaced by war, witnesses said, after campaigners called for anti-government demonstrators to show support for millions affected by conflicts.

Deadly protests that erupted in Sudan on December 19 over a decision to triple the price of bread have spread across the country and escalated into calls for President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years of iron-fisted rule.

On Thursday, hundreds of protesters chanting “freedom, peace, justice the rallying cry of the campaign demonstrated in central Khartoum but were quickly confronted by riot police with teargas, witnesses said.

“Police have arrested many young men and women downtown,” a witness said without revealing his name for security reasons.

Crowds of people living in a camp for the displaced in conflict-wracked Darfur also staged a rally inside the camp, residents said.

“The residents of camp Zam Zam, mostly young men and women, are chanting anti-government slogans in the centre of the camp,” Mohamed Issa, a resident of the camp, said via telephone. “We believe that people across the country are demonstrating on behalf of us, the victims of war in Darfur.”

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protest movement, had called for protests on Thursday in support of people affected by conflicts in the country’s three regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Over the years, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the three conflicts and millions more displaced.