Angry crowds have taken to the streets in
Khartoum and other cities since December 19 after a government decision
to hike the cost of bread.
Nineteen people have been killed so far in the protests, the government said.
Police fired tear gas at hundreds of
worshippers who staged demonstrations after Friday prayers in several
cities, including Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on the west
bank of the Nile, witnesses said.
Protests were also staged in Port Sudan,
Atbara and Madani, witnesses said, adding that several of them were
later broken up by anti-riot police.
Crowds
of worshippers chanted "Freedom, Peace, Justice" as they poured out of a
mosque in Omdurman belonging to main opposition National Umma Party, a
witness said.
But they were quickly confronted by anti-riot police who fired tear gas to break up their demonstration, the witness added.
Photographs posted by activists on social
media networks showed thick plumes of smoke rising from some
neighbourhoods in Khartoum as protesters burnt garbage and tyres.
The protests came as opposition groups called for more anti-government rallies to be held over the next few days.
A group of opposition parties met late on
Thursday and agreed to "push for more protests" in the coming days, the
Sudanese Communist Party said in a statement.
Several opposition party members have been arrested amid a crackdown on demonstrations.
- UN expert alarmed
The opposition Sudanese Congress Party said
that a few hours after protests began on Friday its chief Omar el-Digeir
was arrested by security agents.
"He has been taken to an unknown location," the party said in a statement.
Sudanese Writers' Association said that well
known poet Mohamed Taha had also been arrested on Tuesday after he
participated in a protest in Khartoum.
"We don't know his whereabouts," the association said.
The Sudanese journalists network said that two journalists were detained.
Among those killed in the protests -- which
first erupted in towns and villages and later spread to Khartoum -- were
two security personnel, according to the government.
Most died during "incidents of lootings",
while 219 people were wounded, said government spokesman Boshara Juma,
adding that no deaths had been reported in Khartoum so far.
Late on Friday a minister said police had
captured a group belonging to a prominent rebel leader from from
war-torn Darfur that had plans to "kill demonstrators".
"Police captured 10 people belonging to
SLA/Abdel Wahid group along with 14 Kalashnikovs and 1,000 bullets,"
Minister of State for Information Mamoun Hassan said.
He said police also confiscated some computers from the group.
"Documents inside the computers reveal that these people had plans to kill demonstrators," Hassan said.
United Nations expert on human rights in Sudan, Aristide Nononsi, expressed alarm at the violence.
"I strongly urge the Sudanese security forces
to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid the escalation of violence and
take immediate measures to protect the right to life of the
demonstrators," he said in a statement.
Crowds of people have rallied since last week
after the government raised the price of a loaf of bread from one
Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents).
Although most protests are against the high
cost of living and food prices, some protesters have also adopted the
slogan used in the 2011 Arab Spring -- "the people want the fall of the
regime".
Sudan is facing an acute foreign exchange
crisis and soaring inflation, despite Washington lifting an economic
embargo in October 2017.
Inflation is running at 70 percent and the
Sudanese pound has plunged in value, while shortages of bread and fuel
have regularly hit several cities.
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