Rallies in support of President Omar al-Bashir swept the Sudanese capital Khartoum Wednesday as he faced weeks of protests against his rule.
Hundreds of police officers, soldiers and security agents, some carrying machine guns, were deployed around the site of the rally in the Green Yard, a large open space in the capital.
Thousands of men, women and children carrying pro-Bashir banners arrived in buses from early in the morning, almost filling the site.
The rally was the first held in Khartoum in support of the president since protests erupted.
"This gathering sends a message to those who think that Sudan will become like other countries that have been destroyed," Bashir told a cheering crowd. "We will stop anyone who destroys our properties."
"There was the war, mutiny and war ... They besieged us economically to make Sudan kneel down and they are trying to humiliate us with a small amount of wheat, petrol and dollars," Bashir said during the rally organized by his ruling party.
"But our pride is more valuable than the dollar," he told the crowd of flag-waving supporters.
Across the River Nile in Omdurman, witnesses said security forces used tear gas to break up a demonstration of more than 200 people, some of whom chanted: "Freedom, freedom, peaceful against the thieves".
Witnesses said policemen chased demonstrators into side roads, from where they regrouped to resume their protest. Hundreds also blocked a main road, witnesses said.
In the initial protests, which erupted on December 19 in towns and villages before spreading to Khartoum, several buildings of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party were torched.
Angry demonstrators took to the streets after a government decision to triple the price of bread at a time when the country faces an acute shortage of foreign currency and 70 percent inflation.
