Sudanese police disperse anti-dams demonstration, arrests several protesters

Sudan’s police have dispersed a protest in Khartoum against the building of Kajbar and Dal dams in the Northern state and arrested dozens of protesters. Protesters have gathered from various areas in northern Sudan and Khartoum to demonstrate in front of Al-Salam Rotana Hotel where Sudanese and Saudi officials and investors were holding a forum in the presence of President Omer al-Bashir to discuss the funding of the disputed dams...

...The opposition for the projected dams has intensified following the signing last November of the three dams funding agreements between Sudan and Saudi Arabia, during a visit by President Bashir to Riyadh. The Al-Shiraik, Kajbar and Dal dams in the Northern and River Nile states of Sudan are meant to produce power. Communities to be displaced by the dam projects oppose the construction of these facilities. Four persons from Kajbar area were killed during protests against the construction of the dam in 2007. In April 2006 three demonstrators were killed in Amri area during protests against the Meroe project.

[note: Sinohydro has been involved in the construction of the Kajbar dam]