As Sudanese have now been protesting for more than a week, netizens from around the world have been expressing via social networking sites their support for Sudanese protesters in their battle against government cuts.

Over the weekend Twitter and Facebook users have been sending messages of support to the Sudanese people in the form of pictures of themselves holding a sign on which can be read their country of origin and their message of support. People of all ages and all nationalities voiced their support by tweeting their picture or posting it on Facebook. Messages were sent from Egypt, America, Kuwait, the UK, Syria, or Indonesia.

On Monday, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir tried to downplay the movement of protests growing in the country over austerity measures. Bashir described the protesters as "bubbles" before adding that Sudanese demonstrations were different from the series of protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa.

Last week, Bashir introduced a raft of austerity measures including reducing the number of civil servants, phasing out fuel subsidies, and raising taxes in order to deal with the severe economic crisis.

Although demonstrations began with students, the movement has gained momentum on Friday with serious demonstrations erupting throughout the Sudanese capital in neighbourhoods that had so far been quiet as well as in other key towns such as Al-Obaiyd in the state of North Kordofan, Madani, capital of Al-Jazzera state, and Port Sudan in the east.