| "It's tense. Too tense." |
Armed police were out in force across Port Sudan yesterday following two days of riots by ethnic minority protesters in which at least 17 people were killed, witnesses said. Tensions ran high as hundreds of mourners turned out for the funerals of those killed in what Beja leaders described as a "deliberate, premeditated" attack against their community by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.The protests sparked a security clampdown across eastern Sudan, with arrests of Beja activists also reported in the region's other main towns of Kassala and Jebeit, officials of the opposition Beja Congress said. "Everywhere you go and look, you see groups of police and army troops giving you the impression that they are going to shoot at you," witness Abdullah Bakash said. "The atmosphere is tense and one feels it can explode any time," he said, adding that there were nonetheless no new protests yesterday. The Beja Congress's leader in Red Sea state, which includes Port Sudan, said separate funerals were held yesterday for 17 of the protesters killed by the security forces.