Khartoum: Sudanese police fired tear gas Monday into a university campus where female students were protesting, the university head said on the eighth day of demonstrations sparked by rising fuel prices.
Between 150 and 200 Ahfad University for Women students were demonstrating “against the government and things like that,” university president Gasim Badri told AFP.
He said police did not enter the campus in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman but fired tear gas from outside.
There were no injuries and the demonstration had already finished, Badri said.
Late Sunday about 1,000 people marched in Khartoum calling for the government’s overthrow after a ceremony mourning those gunned down last week during fuel price protests, witnesses said.
The rally began in the wealthy Mansheeya neighbourhood, which was home to Salah Mudathir, 28, a pharmacologist shot dead during a protest on Friday.
“Freedom! Freedom!” they shouted, according to the witnesses.
“A million Salah for a new dawn!” they called in a reference to the dead man.
They also demanded the fall of the regime, echoing calls made by demonstrators during the Arab Spring revolts of 2011 which toppled a succession of veteran regional leaders.
Authorities say 33 people have died since petrol and diesel prices jumped one week ago, sparking the worst protests in the history of President Omar al-Bashir’s two-decade rule.
Activists and international human rights groups say at least 50 people have been gunned down, most of them in the greater Khartoum area.
The real toll is difficult to determine but “could be as much as 200,” a foreign diplomat told AFP Sunday on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, a senior official in Sudan’s ruling party spoke out against an “unnecessary” deadly crackdown on demonstrators protesting fuel price hikes, saying the government should have instead encouraged dialogue.
“The fact that so many have died points to the degree of violence,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, in comments that reflect divisions within the governing National Congress Party (NCP).
“I believe it was unnecessary to repress the peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful demonstration is a constitutional right.”
“The demonstrations have somewhat subsided, leaving lots of grievances behind. These will take time to heal,” said the ruling party official.
Solutions to the economy and other challenges “can’t be done by a limited number of people within the NCP, the government,” he said.
“You need to open up the system, open up to others and make them feel they own the process.”
Dialogue, he said, is preferable to armed confrontation.
“This is better than to meet with the fate of the former Egyptian government, Mursi, or Mubarak for that matter,” he said, referring to the ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in July and his secular predecessor Hosni Mubarak two years earlier.
