Sudanese leaders on Thursday pleaded for the rioting in the capital and other cities to end as the death toll from this week’s unrest rose to 130.
The trouble in Khartoum and other cities, sparked by the death of the vice-president, John Garang, exposed the racial and religious tensions that threaten to divide the country, which has just come out of a lengthy civil war.
Calls for peace and national unity were issued yesterday by both President Omar al-Bashir and former rebel leaders of Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Bashir on Thursday quickly endorsed Salva Kiir Mayardit, whom the SPLM named as Garang’s successor.
It is expected Kiir will be swiftly sworn in as Bashir’s first vice-president, to maintain the coalition between the northern, predominantly Arab and Muslim government and Garang’s African, Christian followers in the south.
”We assert that we are keen on proceeding until peace is achieved,” Bashir said in a televised speech.
The SPLM said the violence, which has left 400 injured, ”is against the values that Mr Garang fought for — the values of liberation and building a new Sudan for all its people, regardless of race or religion”.
A spokesperson for the SPLM, Yasir Arman, said by telephone from neighbouring Kenya that ”confrontation is not in the interests of the SPLM”.
Sudanese troops imposed an uneasy calm in Khartoum yesterday and arrested 1 400 suspected rioters.
Shop owners began reopening for business and sweeping up the broken glass that littered the northern city.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was still in force in the capital last night.
In southern Sudan, Garang’s body was flown to settlements so his followers could pay their last respects before his burial tomorrow.
Today it will be taken to the southern towns of Rumbek and Bor before being buried in Juba, the south’s largest town and the designated capital for an autonomous southern Sudan.
Dozens of troops from the Sudanese army’s elite presidential guard and hundreds of former rebel fighters arrived in Juba on Thursday to protect the leaders who are planning to attend Garang’s funeral.
The security measures were too late for Juba’s 1 200 Arabs, who were targeted in the rioting. Dozens gathered at the airport on Thursday to catch flights to Khartoum, 1 152km north of the sprawling town. – Guardian Unlimited Â