Farmers ‘clash with police’ in Sudan breadbasket

AFP

2  juin 2011

KHARTOUM — Farmers clashed with police on Wednesday in Gezira state, Sudan’s agricultural heartland, while demonstrating against an « unacceptable » government offer to buy their land, several protesters said.

Some 400 farmers gathered, early on Wednesday, at the headquarters of the so-called Gezira Scheme, a vast but neglected farming project between the Blue and White Nile, south of Khartoum, despite police efforts to block them.

They were then ordered to leave, and were marching towards the office of the state governor when police reinforcements arrived and clashes broke out.

« Now there are clashes between the farmers and the police. Three of the demonstrators were arrested and one of them was taken to hospital after he was injured, » Al-Zain Bahit, one of the farmers, told AFP.

He said the police were beating the protesters with sticks.

Three other protesters confirmed the clashes, adding that the farmers were demonstrating against the « unacceptable price » that the government offered to pay them last month for their land, and were shouting slogans such as « Free Gezira! » and « Ali Osman Taha out! » Read more…

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Al Jazirah (Arabic: ولاية الجزيرة‎) (also Gezira) is one of the 25 states of Sudan. The state lies between the Blue Nile and the White Nile in the east-central region of the country. It has an area of 27,549 km². The name comes from the Arabic word for peninsula. Wad Madani is the capital of the state.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 2 juin 2011.

Publié dans émeutes, riots, الشغب