Sudan is well known for dangerous food protests. Recent history has it that such a protest in the 1960s led to the overthrow of the national government. Now, about 200 protesters have marched in the Sudanese capital’s twin city of Omdurman against rising food prices, with anti-riot police firing tear gas to disperse the rally.
Prices of food items but mainly bread have surged in past weeks across Sudan after the hike in the cost of flour due to shortage of wheat supplies.
Reports say that sporadic protests have also erupted in parts of Sudan, including Khartoum, with demonstrators coming out onto the streets in their hundreds. The protesters shouted “No, No to hunger”! “No to high prices” as they marched towards a square in central Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum on the West Bank of the Nile River.
Anti-riot police reportedly moved in swiftly to stop the march and fired tear gas. The authorities had poured water into the streets leading to the square in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the site, he said.
The latest rally was called by the main opposition Umma Party, a day after a similar demonstration held near the presidential palace in Khartoum following a call issued by the Communist Party.
The protest was also broken up by police, who used tear gas and beat up protesters with batons. Sudan’s powerful National Intelligence and Security Service early last Wednesday arrested the Communist Party chief, Mokhtar al-Khatib, from his home.
Other senior Communist Party figures, student leaders and activists have already been arrested since the bread price protests began earlier this month. The protests erupted after the cost of a 50 kilogram (110 pound) sack of flour jumped from 167 Sudanese pounds to 450 ($9 to $25), as wheat supplies dwindled following the government’s decision to leave grain imports to private companies.
So far they have been sporadic and quickly broken up by security forces. But a student was killed during a protest in the western region of Darfur on the 7th of this month.
Similar protests were held in late 2016 after the government cut fuel subsidies. The authorities cracked down on the protests to prevent a repeat of deadly unrest that followed an earlier round of subsidy cuts in 2013. Dozens of people were killed when security forces crushed the 2013 demonstrations, drawing international condemnation.
