Students held protests in the universities of Khartoum and Gezira in the north’s agricultural heartland on Wednesday against proposed cuts in subsidies in petroleum products and sugar, a strategic commodity in Sudan.
Five people were slightly hurt and an unknown number arrested in the Khartoum protest, a student said. “The security forces were already there with a very, very heavy presence,” said journalism student Al-Fadil Ali. “They fear this could lead to revolution.”
On Thursday the protests spread to the towns of Wad Medani and Hassa Heissa in Gezira state, where students clashed with police who also used tear gas to subdue crowds.
The planned cuts come at a politically sensitive time for the government of President Omar Bashir, who stands to lose control over the oil-producing south in the referendum, agreed as part of a 2005 deal to end a north-south civil war.
Prices of other goods have already risen due to a surge in global food prices and a devaluation in the local currency.
In Hassa Heissa, one eyewitness who declined to be named for fear of arrest, said about 500 students broke out of the university on Thursday afternoon to be fiercely beaten back by dozens of police wielding batons and firing tear gas.
In Wad Medani, student Mohamed Hassan said police forced dozens of students back into the university, also with tear gas and canes, before guarding the doors.
“There are about 14 cars of police surrounding the university and they have vehicles with machine guns mounted on them ... pointed at us,” Hassan said from inside the campus.
Sheza Osman Omer from the opposition Democratic Unionist Party in Gezira said several students were injured in clashes with police on Wednesday who had warned them not to leave the university grounds.
She said police beat them with canes and arrested three female students. The police spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the reports.
Algeria and Tunisia have seen serious clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against economic hardship, watched closely by other states in north Africa and across the Arab world with the potential for social unrest.
After several people were killed and hundreds injured in Algeria, the government promised lower prices.
Libya's government also axed duties on food imports, a newspaper said, and Morocco said it had introduced a compensation system for importers of million soft wheat, which importers said was aimed at keeping prices stable. Jordan has also taken steps to keep food and fuel prices in check.
