Sudan riots leave 29 dead

KHARTOUM: At least 29 people have been killed in three days of rioting in Sudan sparked by a government decision to scrap subsidies on fuel, medical officials said on Thursday.
“We have received the bodies of 21 people” since the protests began on Monday, a hospital source in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman said, adding that all were “civilians.”
Another eight people were killed in other regions, witnesses and families said. Activists have called for fresh protests on Thursday in Khartoum, where anti-riot forces have been deployed since early morning at major road intersections, an AFP correspondent said.
The protests have been the largest in Sudan since President Omar Bashir seized power in 1989.
The US Embassy called on its citizens to avoid flashpoint areas, saying it had received “regrettable” reports of casualties and warning Americans of the danger of further protests.
Riots broke out in several districts of the capital on Wednesday, some near the city center, and public transport ground to a halt, an AFP correspondent reported.
Meanwhile, President Bashir will not attend the UN General Assembly, a UN official said on Thursday.
Despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court, Bashir had said on Sunday he planned to attend the UN General Assembly and had already booked a hotel in New York.
A UN official told Reuters by e-mail Bashir would not after all be coming to New York, giving no further details.