Violent mobs run riot in Sudan capital

VIOLENT mobs surged again into the streets of Sudan’s capital yesterday, a day after 36 people died in riots sparked by the death of vice-president and former southern rebel leader John Garang.

The initial violence on Monday was blamed on Garang supporters from the Christian and animist south who blamed his death in a helicopter crash on Sudan’s Muslim-dominated government, but northerners and southerners reportedly staged attacks yesterday after a quiet morning.

Arab gangs invaded some areas populated by southerners on the outskirts of Khartoum and attacked people in the streets, said William Ezekiel, managing editor of the Khartoum Monitor. He said some people had been killed.

A senior UN official in Khartoum said angry southerners, from camps outside the capital for people displaced by the long war in southern Sudan, attacked the Omdurman area. He said a Muslim imam had been killed. “The situation is turning religious and that will be even more dangerous,” he said.

The reports of deaths yesterday could not be independently confirmed. Officials said 36 people were killed and 300 injured in Monday’s riots.

After Monday’s rampage, the government and Mr Garang’s own Sudan People’s Liberation Movement said his death was an accident and dismissed talk of a plot as they sought to keep alive the fragile north-south peace deal that he championed.