Date: Jan 21, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Sudan police confront protesters in march Agence France Presse KHARTOUM: Sudanese police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters planning to march on Parliament Sunday, as President Omar al-Bashir insisted demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by security forces. Deadly protests which erupted on Dec. 19 after a government decision to raise the price of bread have turned into nationwide rallies against Bashir’s three decades of iron-fisted rule. Hundreds of protesters attempted Sunday to march on Parliament in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, but they were quickly confronted by riot police who fired tear gas, witnesses said. Protesters then staged simultaneous rallies in different neighborhoods of Omdurman in an attempt to gather again for the march, a witness said, but they were unable to. They shouted “freedom, peace and justice,” the main slogan of the protest movement, and “overthrow, overthrow,” the witness said. Witnesses said that apart from Omdurman, protesters staged demonstrations in the capital’s eastern district of Burri - site of clashes on Jan. 17 - and in the northern suburb of Bahari. “The protesters will submit to Parliament a memorandum calling on President Bashir to step down,” the protest organizers said, the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which represents several unions of doctors, teachers and engineers. Officials say that 26 people, including two security personnel, have died in the past month in protests, while rights group Amnesty International has put the death toll at more than 40. The protests have emerged as the biggest challenge yet to the authority of President Bashir, who swept to power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup. They come with Sudan suffering from an economic crisis driven by an acute shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation that has more than doubled the price of food and medicines. Riot police and Sudan’s feared National Intelligence and Security Service have led a sweeping crackdown on the protest movement that has seen several opposition leaders, activists, journalists as well as protesters jailed since the demonstrations erupted. The government’s tough response has sparked international criticism, with Amnesty International accusing the security forces of using violence against protesters. Bashir rejected the accusations at a rally in Al-Kurreida village in the state of White Nile, alleging that groups within the protest movement were behind the killing of demonstrators. “There are some people among the protesters who are killing the demonstrators,” Bashir said in a speech broadcast live on state television, without specifying who the culprits were. He said that a doctor who died Thursday in Burri was not killed by security forces. Later, a doctors’ committee linked to the SPA had said the doctor was killed by live ammunition but did not specify who had fired the shots. It also said a child was killed on that day, but Sunday apologized for a “false report.” The SPA said there would also be night-time demonstrations on Tuesday in the capital and in Omdurman. More rallies were planned for Thursday “across all towns and cities of Sudan,” the group said.