KHARTOUM, Jan 25 (Reuters) - At least one person was killed on Wednesday when protesters in Sudan's Darfur region burned government buildings and threw rocks at security forces after the removal of the state governor.
Sudanese security forces fired bullets into the air and used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators who have been protesting for two days in Nyala, the largest city in the war-torn region, two witnesses said.
"The situation is chaos," one witness in Nyala who asked not to be named said by telephone, describing tyres burning on the street, smashed car windows and the sound of gunshots.
One man died from gunshot wounds and at least 28 people -- including 18 police -- were wounded in the fighting, police said in a statement.
"A number of participants left the protest in groups, chanted slogans, burned tyres in the city centre, and smashed government signs and traffic lights," the statement said.
The protesters burned a police building and a local government office. Authorities have arrested a number of suspects and were in control of the situation, it said.
The violence began after residents angry over the removal of the South Darfur state governor Abdel Hamid Musa Kasha began protesting during a celebration for the governor's replacement on Tuesday, the witnesses said.
Kasha is a member of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party and of Darfur's large Arab Rizeigat tribe, and his replacement was part of a government plan to divide Darfur into five states. Kasha refused to become governor of one of the new states.
War has ground on in Darfur since 2003, when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms complaining that the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum had neglected the remote region.
Khartoum mobilised troops and mostly Arab militias to suppress the uprising, unleashing a wave of violence that may have killed as many as 300,000 people, according to a United Nations estimate. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
The International Criminal Court has charged Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir with masterminding genocide and other crimes in Darfur, accusations Khartoum dismisses as baseless and politically motivated. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Robert Woodward)
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