Darfur students disrupt event in Sudan’s capital
March 18, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Groups of students from Sudan’s western region of Darfur ruined on Saturday the opening ceremony of a sport tournament held in the capital Khartoum after they burst into anti-government slogans.
Eye witnesses told Sudan Tribune that the students had began to chant slogans calling for the government downfall and peace in Darfur shortly after the celebrations of inaugurating Sudan’s student sport tournament started in the Stadium of Khartoum.
Darfur region is the scene of a low-intensity conflict between government forces and rebel groups that rejected to sign a peace deal with the government.
Hundreds of people fled the stadium as the unrest unfolded while police forces surrounded the place for fears that the situation might escalate, the witnesses said.
They added that the former governor of South Darfur State, Abdel Hamid Musa Kasha, who was present in the ceremony, attempted to calm the angry protesters but to no avail.
The unrest resulted in cancelling the opening ceremony of the tournament in which 60 club from Darfur’s five states are participating.
The media secretary of the government-backed Darfur Students Union, Ibrahim Zakaria, admitted that the protests had led to the cancellation of the event. He described the protesters as political activists.
(ST)