SUDANESE communists have called for the masses to defend the revolution after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum on Thursday.

Security forces opened fire with tear gas as protesters burned tyres and waved flags during a sit-in outside the parliament building in the Sudanese capital.

They expressed anger at a  lack of progress by the interim military-civilian government, accusing the armed forces of clinging to power amid a deepening economic crisis.