Student protester dies from injuries

A student died from his injuries after being beaten by security forces during anti-government demonstrations inspired by protests in neighbouring Egypt, activists said yesterday.

It was the first reported death in the protests, which saw students at Khartoum University beaten and tear-gassed in their dormitories on Sunday with at least five injured.

Police and security forces surrounded universities in Khartoum and other cities yesterday.

"You are our martyr Mohamed Abdelrahman," activists wrote on the social networking site Facebook, on a group called "Youth for Change" which has more than 16,000 members and calls for an end to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government.

Three activists said that Mr Abdelrahman, a student from Omdurman Ahaliya University, died in hospital from his injuries and had been buried.

Students demonstrating against rising food and petrol prices clashed with police in north Sudan earlier in January. The protests have broadened since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, with campaigners calling for regime change, and listing a range of complaints ranging from corruption to the practice of sentencing women to be lashed. At least six universities in the capital and Sudan's regions were surrounded yesterday by hundreds of armed police.