20120218
AFP
Sudanese police on Friday forcibly evicted hundreds of university students who had remained in their dormitories after violent demonstrations led to the campus's shutdown weeks ago, students said.

"A huge number of police came... and they used batons against us," student spokesman Al-Fathy Hasabo told a press conference after he and about 100 others were released from custody on charges of causing a disturbance.

Police rounded up everybody -- more than 300 students -- sleeping in the University of Khartoum residence during the raid at about 3:00 am (0000 GMT), Hasabo said.

"When they arrested us, they ordered us to take our luggage," Hasabo said.

Officers told students they are not allowed to live on campus while the university's operations are suspended.

It is unclear how many remain in police custody, Hasabo said, adding that two students are unaccounted for.

Classes at the campus along the Nile river were suspended after students and riot police battled in late December. What began as a sit-in related to a dispute over university fees spilled into surrounding streets, where police fired tear gas and students tossed stones.

A few days earlier, police had broken up another protest outside the University of Khartoum, in support of residents displaced by a dam project.

Despite the suspension of classes, some students continued to live on campus because they had nowhere else to go in Khartoum, Hasabo said.

Those detained in December were among more than 250 people, including activists and opposition figures, arrested as part of a renewed crackdown, Human Rights Watch said last month.

The watchdog said the "wave of repression" coincided with a public outcry over social grievances largely brought on by deteriorating economic conditions and political uncertainty after the secession of South Sudan last year.