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Sudanâ€™s President Warns Protesters of â€˜Incinerating Summerâ€™

12 July 2012 03:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir has warned protesters against further protests and promised them an â€˜incinerating summerâ€™ instead of the Arab Spring, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

Protests against a government austerity plan that cut subsidies and doubled the price of fuel and food broke out in Khartoum last month, staged by students of Khartoum University. The protests then spread to several other cities and towns in central and eastern Sudan.

â€œIt is in the interests of people that the government of the national salvation remains in power. They [protesters] speak about the Arab Spring. I should say that we in Sudan have an incinerating summer, which will burn down all of its enemies,â€ al-Bashir said.

Sudan has faced a $2.4 billion budget deficit as it has lost billions of dollars in oil revenues since South Sudan gained independence last July. The South took most of the oil reserves when it seceded, but relies on pipelines to seaports in Sudan to export the oil.

In January, after months of stalled negotiations on an oil-sharing arrangement between the two countries, South Sudan shut down its oil production, sending Sudanese economy into a deep recession.

The annual inflation rate in Sudan increased from 28.6 percent in April to 30.4 percent in May.

In early June, President al-Bashir unveiled tough austerity measures to plug the budget deficit.