Thousands of Sudanese demonstrated in several areas in clear defiance of the government’s "state of emergency" announced on Friday.
The demonstrations came upon a call by the Sudanese Professionals Gathering and its allies in the opposition.
Witnesses said that thousands of protesters demonstrated in the center of the main market in the city of Omdurman on the west bank of the Nile, and the security services responded with tear gas grenades. Other demonstrations took place in a number of markets and neighborhoods in the city.
“Demonstrations are a challenge to the regime’s state of emergency,” said the Sudanese Professionals’ Gathering, which is leading the protests in the country. Activists posted videos and photographs of the Omdurman protests.
Witnesses also reported seeing a number of military vehicles with large numbers of girls who had been arrested by the army in the neighborhood of Berri.
On social networking platforms, activists circulated pictures of besieged students at the University of Medical Sciences. Police forces used tear gas and beat them inside the university campus, before arresting a number of students as they tried to jump off the walls of the university.
President Omar al-Bashir had declared a one-year nationwide state of emergency on Friday and replaced all state governors with military officials. The new officials took oath in an official ceremony on Sunday.
Before the state of emergency was declared in the country, Sudanese security forces used excessive violence against peaceful protestors, killing more than 30 protesters, according to a government toll, and more than 50 according to Amnesty International’s figures, since the protests broke out on Dec. 19.
