By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, January 31, 2011

Inspired by popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrations have spread across the region, with protests being held in Sudan, Jordan and Yemen over the weekend.

Students clashed with police in the Sudanese capital Sunday as youths heeded calls to take to the streets for a day of anti-government protests, despite a heavy security presence.

The demonstrations saw dozens of people arrested and the sacking of Khartoum University’s director.
At the Islamic University of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, around 1,000 demonstrators were confronted by riot police as they marched along the street shouting slogans criticizing President Omar al-Bashir, an AFP correspondent reported.

“Ocampo, what you have said is right!” they chanted, in reference to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who has accused Bashir of genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

Clashes broke out, with protesters hurling rocks at police who retaliated with tear gas and batons. Students belonging to the ruling National Congress Party joined the police in some of the clashes, a witness said.
In central Khartoum, near the presidential palace, hundreds of youths demonstrated, calling for regime change and defying police.

“We want change! No to the high price of goods!” one group chanted before riot police chased the protesters, arresting at least five of them.

Nearby, at the medical faculty of Khartoum University, security officers initially prevented a large group of student demonstrators from leaving the campus. The students eventually forced their way out onto the street, shouting: “Revolution against dictatorship!”

But police and security officers attacked them with batons, arresting several and forcing the students back inside the campus, which was then surrounded by eight police trucks.

The official SUNA news agency later announced in statement that the president had dismissed the university director, Mustafa Idris al-Bashir.

Security officials prevented some journalists from covering the protests, which took place in response to Internet calls for peaceful anti-government rallies across Sudan.

Soldiers detained an AFP cameraman for two hours, and around 10 journalists working for local and international media were stopped and ordered not to report on the demonstrations.

“This peaceful procession is organized by the youth of Sudan,” Mubarak al-Fadl of the opposition Umma party told AFP. “What we have seen in Egypt has inspired the youth to move, and they have organized themselves through the Internet.”
Fadl said the protests had the support of “all the opposition parties.”

In Jordan, activists rallied outside government offices Saturday as they tried to step up their campaign to force Prime Minister Samir Rifai to step down. About 200 Jordanians gathered outside the prime minister’s office shouting “Our government is a bunch of thieves” and holding banners reading “No to poverty or hunger.”

“We’ve come from distant, rural areas to Amman to ask Rifai to leave,” said Mohammed Sunaid, a prominent activist. “We call for the overthrow of this government that has destroyed the poor. This government should be for all Jordanians not just the rich.”

In Yemen, the ruling party has called for dialogue with the opposition in a bid to stem anti-government protests.
Supporters of the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh Saturday attacked and dispersed dozens of Yemenis who tried to march to the Egyptian Embassy in Sanaa to express solidarity with anti-government Egyptian demonstrators.
The Yemeni protesters were chanting “the people want the regime to fall,” witnesses said.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in recent days in Yemen demanding a change of government.
In Algeria, a third Algerian died from self-immolation, the daily al Watan reported, while another tried to set himself alight Sunday, adding to a grim tally of Tunisia-inspired acts. – AFP, Reuters