The Sudanese capital on Sunday witnessed intense and at times violent student demonstrations that roamed major streets of Khartoum to protest the mysterious killings of four students from Darfur at the University of El-Gezira on Friday.
The protestors chanted slogans calling for toppling the regime and avenging their fallen colleagues.
Some were holding signs that supported the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebel coalition while others shouted in support of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) leader Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Nur.
“Killing students is the killing of the nation… Peace, justice, freedom ” the demonstrators chanted.
The police used teargas and deployed dozens to cordon and chase the students who belonged mostly to the universities of Khartoum, Neelain and Sudan.
The protesters moved through the corridors of the Khartoum university carrying a symbolic coffin in a mock funeral representing the deceased students and headed towards the UN offices to deliver a memorandum demanding an investigation into their demise.
The students and activists accuse the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of standing behind the deaths of the four students whose bodies were discovered in a canal near El-Gezira university south of Khartoum after a protest earlier in the week over exemption from tuition fees.
The exemption from tuition fees was first included in Abuja peace agreement signed with the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) in May 2006 but the agreement did not define who is the Darfurian student that could benefit from the measure.
As a result the exemption has been implemented differently from a university to another based administrative discretion of the university. It also caused regular disputes with Darfuri students who apply to benefit from this affirmative action.
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