KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities seized the print-runs of four daily newspapers on Tuesday, staff said, a move one editor called a crackdown on coverage of anti-austerity protests.

Officers moved in to stop the distribution of Al-Tayar, Aljareeda, Al Ayam and Al-Youm Al-tali newspapers, workers told Reuters.

“The likely reason is the newspaper’s coverage of the calls for civil disobedience,” Al-Tayar’s editor-in-chief, Osman Mirghani, said.

Protests erupted earlier this month after Sudan announced austerity measures including fuel and electricity subsidy cuts and restrictions on some imports.

Activists have called for more acts of civil disobedience this week.

Sudan’s economy has struggled since South Sudan seceded in 2011, taking with it three quarters of the country’s oil output, a key source of foreign currency and government revenue.

Four opposition leaders were arrested on Wednesday, and on Sunday authorities ordered the closure of Omdurman, a private television channel, which had been running for the past six years.