Sudan university cuts classes after demos: campus

Administrators at Sudan's main university have partially shut down the campus, sources at the institution said Sunday, after several Arab Spring-style student protests sparked by high inflation.

"Now there is no teaching from today up to the end of Ramadan," one University of Khartoum source told AFP. He said the decision came after intensified demonstrations at the institution near the Blue Nile River in central Khartoum.

"Even people from outside the university started to participate," he said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitive situation. "So they decided the only solution is to close the university." The decision affects most colleges on the main campus but satellite facilities elsewhere in Khartoum are still in session, another campus source said.

"It is not a closure but they just made the programme (finish) quicker... instead of allowing some disturbance," a second source said, adding that students have been told to return after the holy month of Ramadan to sit for examinations. Ramadan begins on Friday.

The decision to cancel many classes came after students on the main campus last Wednesday staged perhaps their biggest protest since unrest began on June 16.

Classes had already been suspended at the University of Khartoum for more than two months early this year following a student sit-in and exam boycott after a clash with police on campus in December.