Violent Demo by ex-Sudanese Military from South

Sacked South Sudanese members of the Sudanese military pelted motorists and police with stones and blocked traffic on Wednesday to protest delays in their severance pay, witnesses said.

About 100 protesters gathered on Africa Road, a major artery in the Sudanese capital, shouting "We want our rights!"

Witnesses said the demonstrators were seeking compensation and marched to the multi-lane thoroughfare from a nearby office of the Sudan Armed Forces.

Stones thrown by the demonstrators shattered windows of some passing cars, an Agence France Presse reporter witnessed.

Riot police wielding batons dispersed the protesters, and there were no apparent arrests or injuries.

The Khartoum government fired ethnic southern members of its civil service last year prior to the July separation of South Sudan, which voted overwhelmingly for independence after decades of conflict with the north that left some two million people dead.

Up to 700,000 ethnic southerners are estimated to remain in Sudan ahead of an April deadline for them to either go south or normalize their status with the Khartoum authorities.

On Sunday, Khartoum and Juba agreed to cooperate in the transfer of ethnic southerners to the new nation, the official SUNA news agency said.

Khartoum's Social Welfare Minister, Amira al-Fadel Mohamed, signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue with South Sudan's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Joseph Lual Achwel, SUNA said, adding the agreement covers road, air and river transport.

Despite the deal, the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. have said it is logistically impossible for all southerners in Sudan to either move south or obtain official status in the north before the April 8 deadline.