It was the second day of unrest in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
Black smoke hung over the town's main market, where many shops had been set ablaze, the witnesses said.
"The demonstration is still going on and now many are setting fire in the market. Some people, I don't know if they are protesters or not, are looting the main market," one said.
Police fired tear gas, which sent some people to hospital, the witnesses said, estimating hundreds had turned out in the morning to show support for the ousted elected governor, Abdul Hamid Kasha.
President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
earlier this month replaced Kasha with an appointee, Hamad Ismail, and broke off parts of South Darfur to add two new states in the region, which previously had three.
"People want Kasha," protesters chanted as they marched through the streets, witnesses said.
Many of the demonstrators were students or school children, they added.