[Published: Monday January 07 2019]
 Sudan arrests Khartoum University lecturers amid fresh protests
KHARTOUM 7 Jan (ANA) - Sudanese security authorities have arrested several faculty members from Khartoum University, two professors said, after they joined anti-government protests that have posed the most serious challenge to President Omar al-Bashir's rule.
The arrests on Sunday came amid fresh demonstrations in Sudan's capital Khartoum and other cities in response to a call by a coalition of professional unions to push for Bashir to step down.
Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that security forces blocked professors and lecturers from coming out to protest outside the university, arresting at least eight.
It was the first time the faculty of the country's oldest and most prestigious educational institution joined the protests since they began last month.
The rest were forced to return into the faculty clubhouse, where security forces surrounded the building trapping about 100 professors and lecturers inside for nearly three hours.
"We demand the president of the republic to step down," one placard read carried by the lecturers inside the clubhouse, according to pictures posted on social media.
A police spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Intermittent protests have rocked Sudan since anger over food shortages and rising bread prices erupted into demonstrations in the city of Atbara in the north on December 19.
Security forces have used tear gas on occasions, live ammunition against demonstrators and rounded up more than 2,000 people.ANA)
FA/ANA/7 January 2019-----
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