SUDANESE protesters reported another two deaths at police hands today as the country’s Communist Party sounded the alarm over the arrest of its official spokesman Fathi Alfadl.

Demonstrators marching yesterday in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the opposite bank of the Nile to the capital, calling for the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir were attacked by police who used tear gas and fired live rounds into the air. Police say they are investigating reports of the deaths.

The demo came after Mr Alfadl was arrested in Khartoum that morning alongside “scores of communists and democratic activists,” according to the Communist Party.

It expressed “deep concern for his safety and health.” Journalists have reported widespread torture in Sudanese prisons, including of hundreds of students arrested since December 19 amid giant protests at the rising price of essentials.

Mr Alfadl is a well-known figure in the international socialist movement and represented the Sudanese party at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Athens two months ago.

The party added that a number of its central committee members arrested in recent weeks were still in custody, including Siddig Yousif, Masoud Alhassan, Hanadi Fadl, Kamal Karar, Sied Ahmed Alkhteeb and Tariq Abdalmagied.

It called for the immediate release of all activists and “the continuation of the mass movement day after day in neighbourhoods, workplaces and schools” and for vigilance to prevent foreign powers negotiating a “soft landing” for the regime that would let President Bashir off the hook and avoid revolutionary change.