SUDAN: Protests in parts of Sudan continued for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, as doctors prepared to strike over the rising cost of bread and fuel.
At least 10 people have been killed since demonstrations began on Wednesday after the government hiked the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (about $0.02 to $0.06), exacerbating grievances over price rises, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crisis.
Protesters are calling for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been in power for three decades, to step down.
“Fuel and bread shortages may have triggered protests across the country, but other factors now seem to be helping to keep them going,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the capital, Khartoum, said.
“People seem to be frustrated not just by the economic crisis, but by the way the country is being run and they want to see change.”
On Sunday, residents in Um Rawaba, 200km southwest of the capital Khartoum, told AFP news agency that some 600 people gathered in the market chanting, “the people want the fall of the regime”.
Protesters burned tyres and branches in the streets and attempted to storm a government building before being turned back by security officials, witnesses said.
In Atabara, 300km northeast of the capital, riot police and plain-clothed operatives deployed tear gas against hundreds of protesters, a witness said.
Police also fired tear gas on protesters in Khartoum after hundreds of protesters blocked a road in the centre of the city late on Sunday. Earlier in the day, there was a tense calm as schools and universities were shuttered by a nation-wide government suspension and riot police equipped with batons and tear gas guarded buildings. “We were asked to leave this morning,” said a university student from northern Khartoum. Sudanese queued outside bakeries in the city, where vendors were refusing to sell more than 20 loaves of bread per person.
