Tear Gas Confronts 'Revolution' Call at Sudan Funeral

Sudanese police fired tear gas Wednesday when mourners called for "revolution" following the funeral of a student allegedly gunned down by security forces at a protest against violence in Darfur.

The incident came after about 1,000 mourners had buried Ali Abaker Mussa Idris in a south Khartoum cemetery.

An AFP reporter said police resorted to tear gas as the angry crowd, shouting anti-government slogans, began moving out of the burial ground.

The public anger is the first major showing of discontent since dozens of people were gunned down in anti-regime protests last September.

Idris, a third-year economics student, died in hospital from gunshot wounds "after security forces used tear gas and opened fire with live ammunition" at the University of Khartoum demonstration on Tuesday, Amnesty International said.

In a statement on the Interior Ministry website, police did not say what killed the student. They said officers had fired only tear gas.

Many of those who attended Idris's funeral were also students.

"Peace, freedom, justice!" they shouted before the gas sent them scattering into surrounding streets of the neighborhood near a major bus station.

"Revolution is the people's choice!" they called, after earlier shouting for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir's 25-year-old regime.

About 12 truckloads of riot police and plainclothes security agents had been stationed around the cemetery.

Idris was killed when about 300 students, many of them from Darfur, protested at the university on Tuesday.

Activists said dozens were also arrested.

University authorities announced an indefinite closure of the campus "to protect the lives and property" after the student's death.

Blue riot police trucks were stationed around the colonial-era university on Wednesday, including in front of the main entrance gates where one policeman stood flexing a meter (yard)-long baton.

The unrest on Tuesday and Wednesday was the most serious in Khartoum since thousands of people demonstrated after the government slashed fuel subsidies in September.

Amnesty International said security forces were believed to have killed more than 200 people at that time, many of whom were shot in the head or chest.

Authorities reported a toll of less than half that.

Sudanese have suffered three years of rising prices since South Sudan separated in 2011 with the bulk of united Sudan's oil production, which accounted for most of Khartoum's export earnings and half of its fiscal revenues.

Since late 2011, the Sudanese pound has lost about 50 percent of its value on the widely used black market, while hard currency is in short supply.

Inflation has been around 40 percent, and the deteriorating economy has contributed to unrest in Darfur.

In a report to be considered by the United Nations Security Council, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon says that over the past two years, Sudan's faltering economy has led to worsening crime and inter-communal fighting in Darfur.

Some cash-poor paramilitaries have joined the tribal fighting over gold and other resources.

Ban says such resource-based clashes between communities, supported by tribal militias, are now the main cause of violence and displacement in Darfur.

An 11-year-old ethnic rebellion also continues.

Analysts say the government can no longer control its former Arab tribal allies, whom it armed against the insurgents.

Three major outbreaks of unrest have occurred in Darfur since late February.

Aid agencies report more than 55,000 people displaced from Saraf Omra town in Darfur's west after fighting between paramilitary troops and government forces, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday.

About 45,000 others have been uprooted and villages razed in South Darfur, and in the eastern edge of North Darfur up to 15,000 fled after rebels attacked government forces, OCHA said.