Thick plumes of smoke billowed into the sky on Saturday as a fire ripped through Sudan ’ s old presidential palace in the capital Khartoum , the presidency and an AFP journalist reported .
Police cordoned off the streets heading to the palace , built in 1832 on the bank of the Blue Nile , as smoke billowed from the building.
The fire broke out due to a short circuit in some of the offices on the second floor of the palace , the presidency said.
“ Most offices in the old republican palace are not in use … the fire has now been brought under control , ” Mohamed Saleh, an official at the presidency said in a statement .
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He did not say whether there were any casualties .
The palace was the official seat of the Sudanese government in the decades following the country ’s independence in 1956 .
But in recent years , President Omar al – Bashir had shifted to a new palace from where he runs his administration ’s daily affairs .
The 75 – year- old leader is facing a wave of angry protests against his iron- fisted rule of three decades, with demonstrators calling on him to step down .