Anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Khartoum and staged demonstrations in hospitals and universities overnight and on Tuesday in defiance of sweeping new emergency powers announced by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Under the new powers, imposed by presidential decree and announced by Bashir on Monday night, people arrested for participating in unlicensed demonstrations and public gatherings would face 10 years in prison with special courts established to prosecute the protesters.
But protest organisers, opposition parties and activists on social media immediately called on their supporters to defy the new laws, and hundreds of people responded by rallying in Khartoum late on Monday, calling for Bashir to step down.
On Tuesday, doctors and students organised sit-ins at dozens of hospitals and universities in Khartoum and elsewhere around the country, drawing what activists described as a “brutal response” by security forces in some locations.
Nagla Atta, an opposition activist, said that protests had taken place at several universities in the capital, including Ahfad, Medical Science and Technology and Sudan International.
She told Middle East Eye that police and security forces had fired tear gas inside the universities for a third consecutive day.
“Using the power of the emergency laws, the security forces and police cracked down aggressively on the students, firing tear gas, and raiding the campuses,” she said.
“The security forces brutally attacked the universities, beating the students and abusing the female students.”
Tens of thousands of students joined a growing protest movement across Algeria after ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced plans to run for a fifth term earlier this month, Reuters news agency reported, citing witnesses.
Rallies in and around the capital and other cities have been ongoing for the past five days, with Tuesday’s protests led by university students.
Students were demanding that Bouteflika, 81, drop his intention to seek re-election in the 18 April presidential vote.
The student protesters, who chanted "peaceful, peaceful" and "no to a fifth term", were also asking for government steps to provide jobs, a Reuters news article said.