Sudan death toll rises to 130, capital calm

KHARTOUM, Aug 4 (Reuters) – At least 130 people have been killed and around 350 wounded in Sudan in three days of violence after the death of former rebel leader and First Vice President John Garang, the Sudanese Red Crescent said on Thursday.

Residents reported the streets of the capital Khartoum were much quieter overnight than in previous nights, when gangs of armed vigilantes roamed the streets despite a curfew imposed since Monday to curb the clashes.

The Sudanese Red Crescent’s director of disaster management told Reuters the death toll in the capital by Wednesday evening was 111, with six killed in Malakal and 13 in the southern town of Juba, where Garang is to be buried on Saturday.

“It was very quiet last night compared to the previous two nights,” Hadi Ali al-Obeid said.

Many of Khartoum’s commercial districts were in ruins, with shops burnt and looted and cars wrecked following the clashes.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir issued a call for calm live on state television on Wednesday on the third day of rioting in the capital, the worst seen in many years. More than 300 people were wounded in Khartoum alone.

Garang led the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in a bitter struggle with the Islamist Khartoum-based government for more than 2 decades before sigining a peace deal in January to end Africa’s longest civil war.

He returned to Khartoum to be sworn in as first vice president on July 9, and was working on forming a coalition government. The peace deal involved wealth and power sharing, democratic elections within 3 years and a southern referendum on secession from the north within 6 years.

Salva Kiir, Garang’s deputy, has been appointed as the new head of the SPLM and will be sworn in as first vice president in coming weeks.