20110927
Reuters
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Police used tear gas on Monday to disperse around 300 people who demonstrated for several hours in the Sudanese capital against spiralling inflation, witnesses and activists said.

It was the biggest protest for months in Khartoum. Sudan has avoided an "Arab Spring", like that in Egypt and Tunisia, but anger has been building over an economic crisis and inflation hit 21 percent in August.

Police tried to disperse the protesters in the Barri quarter but they regrouped several times and blocked roads until the evening, two witnesses and one activist told Reuters.

"There were some 300 protesters, including women. They shouted: 'No to high prices'. It went on until the evening," said one witness who did not want to be identified.

The interior ministry said in a statement police had ended what it called a "limited" riot. Traffic had been blocked temporarily when protesters burned some tyres, it added.

Protesters could be seen marching on a street with smoke in the background, apparently from burning tyres, according to a video, posted on YouTube, purportedly a film of the protest.

Food prices have risen 25 percent in the past year. The Sudanese pound hit a new low on the black market on Monday.

Last week activists refused to buy meat for three days to protest against rising prices. The government reacted with a package of measures, including temporarily waiving duties on basic food imports.

Economists doubt whether inflation will fall because Sudan lost most of its oil reserves when South Sudan became independent. This reduced the inflow of foreign currency needed to pay for imports and the scarcity of imports pushed up prices.

The economy is dependent on oil and small-scale gold exports which the government plans to expand. The government wants to diversify the economy but progress has been low which experts blame on U.S. trade sanctions and poor planning.