KHARTOUM – Hundreds of baton-wielding riot police barred Sudanese opposition activists from demonstrating on Wednesday, arresting dozens and beating up others, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some 500 riot police were deployed in Abu Janzeer square, in the centre of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, after an alliance of opposition parties announced plans to hold a demonstration there at 1pm (1000 GMT). As soon as the demonstrators stepped into the square, the police started beating them with batons and arresting them, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. Among those arrested was the secretary general of Sudan’s Communist Party, Mohammed Ibrahim Lughud. Opposition sources said three prominent figures in the communist and Baath parties were also arrested in their homes early on Wednesday, including Baath Party leader and alliance activist Mohammed Dia
al-Din. Sudan’s opposition alliance includes the Umma Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Popular Congress Party.
