Beleaguered Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has met his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on his second trip abroad since anti-government protests kicked off across Sudan in December.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has said there are efforts to destabilise his country through an attempt to replicate the so-called Arab Spring.

“This is an attempt to copy the Arab Spring in Sudan, these are the same slogans and appeals and the very wide use of social media sites,” said Bashir, referring to the uprisings across the region that began in 2011.

This is Bashir’s biggest challenge to his authority since coming to power in a coup d’état in 1989.

The government says that at least 30 people have been killed in the protests since they began. Human rights groups and professional associations along with the media say the number is closer to 45 killed.

They have put videos and photos on social media, showing the brutality by Sudanese security forces against peaceful protesters, including the use of live ammunition to disperse protesters and funeral-goers.

Security forces have also arrested hundreds of people, including doctors.

“We do not claim there is no problem, but it is not of the size or dimensions some of the media portray,” he said at a joint press conference in the Egyptian capital.

In his speech, President Bashir acknowledged there were problems in the country but said they were not as big as portrayed by the media.