KHARTOUM, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas and used batons on Thursday to break up a student demonstration in Sudan's capital Khartoum over a government dam project, witnesses said.
The protest was the latest in a series staged in recent months over rising food prices and other issues in the African country, which is facing a severe economic crisis and multiple armed insurgencies.
About 200 students gathered outside the University of Khartoum to support villagers displaced by the Merowe dam on the Nile river who had protested in the capital a day earlier, the witnesses said.
"A strong message, oh Bashir, it's our rights or change," they chanted, referring to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
Dozens of police wearing helmets and bearing plastic shields and batons clashed with the protesters, the witnesses said. Sudan's police spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
Police broke up a demonstration staged on Wednesday by about 100 villagers displaced by the dam, witnesses said. The police denied using violence to disperse them.
Sudanese students staged demonstrations in January and February in an attempt to emulate popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, but the protests were quickly broken up and the movement failed to gain broader momentum.
Sudan's economic outlook worsened after South Sudan seceded in July, taking with it about three quarters of the formerly united country's roughly 500,000 barrels of oil output - the lifeblood of both economies.
The ${esc.dollar}2-billion, Chinese-built Merowe dam was completed in 2009 with the aim of doubling Sudan's electricity supply. The 1,250-megawatt project displaced tens of thousands of people and has long been a source of controversy.
Villagers have clashed with authorities over the dam in the past, though most have now accepted government compensation and moved. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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