Sudan police confront rallies as Bashir blames media

Sudanese police fired tear gas at protesters in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Sunday, witnesses said, after organisers called for further demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's three decades of rule.

Bashir, on a visit to Cairo to meet his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said the media were exaggerating the size of the problems he faced at home.

Deadly protests sparked by a government decision to raise the price of bread have rocked the east African country for weeks. The demonstrations have mushroomed into nationwide rallies against the government of Bashir, who swept to power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup.

Officials say 30 people have died in the violence since the protests first erupted on December 19 in the farming town of Atbara, before spreading to Khartoum and other regions. Rights groups say more than 40 people have been killed.

On Sunday, protesters came onto the streets in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman to hold sit-ins in several squares, responding to a call by the Sudanese Professionals Association which is leading the protests.

But a massive deployment of riot police and security agents prevented them from gathering at several locations, witnesses said, and the protesters later began rallies in several residential areas of Khartoum and Omdurman.

"You're police, you have to protect us," demonstrators shouted as riot police cordoned off several squares in Khartoum and Omdurman, where they had planned to hold sit-ins. Police surrounded many squares and filled some with muddy water to prevent demonstrators from gathering, witnesses said.

The SPA backed by several opposition political parties said in a joint statement that despite the deployment of security forces, protesters managed to gather in 11 squares and also stage six rallies in residential areas of Khartoum and Omdurman during the day.

"When we came to the square for a sit-in, we saw security forces had surrounded it," said a female demonstrator, who did not identify herself for security reasons. "We then decided to hold a rally in a nearby neighbourhood, but there too the police hit us with tear gas."