The video above has been circulating on Sudanese social media of Professor Gasim Bedri of Al-Ahfad University for Women, allegedly slapping female students attending the private education college.

Several eyewitness accounts by female students on social media said the girls were protesting at a rise in prices in the university’s canteen when Prof Bedri intervened and promised to resolve the situation.

The students started chanting anti-government slogans and wanted to take their campus demonstration to the street, but Prof Bedri, 72, apparently opposed the move and ordered the university’s gates closed, saying that it was his duty of care to ensure the safety of his students.

It is not clear what happened next and what led him to allegedly strike his students.