Discontent simmers in Sudan after protest deaths

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir speaks during a press conference in Khartoum on September 22, 2013 (AFP/File)

Khartoum (AFP) – Discontent simmered in Sudan on Tuesday as the public struggled to understand why their "brothers and daughters" had been shot dead during protests against fuel price increases.

"We are very angry about what happened because those protesters, their only weapons were stones and their shouts," said Yusif Mohammed, 50, a teacher whose brother was killed in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.

"Why were they gunned down?"

"I???m proud of him because by joining the demonstrations he was defending the right of his people," Mohammed said of his brother.

Osama Mohammed, 47, who works in a private company, told AFP: "After the deaths of those youths we will not keep silent."

Authorities say 34 people have died since petrol and diesel prices jumped more than 60 percent on September 23, sending thousands into the streets in the worst urban unrest in the history of President Omar al-Bashir's 24-year rule.

People in the impoverished country have already endured two years of soaring prices.

Activists and international human rights groups said at least 50 people were shot dead, most of them in the greater Khartoum area.

The real toll was difficult to determine but "could be as much as 200," a foreign diplomat has told AFP.