Sudan lifts Khartoum curfew after riots

KHARTOUM, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities have lifted a curfew imposed two weeks ago to stop the capital’s worst violence in decades, which killed at least 111 people, Interior Ministry officials said on Monday.

Sudanese soldiers secure Sudan’s capital Khartoum on August 2, 2005, a day after deadly riots broke out in the city . (AFP).

“We have lifted the curfew,” the ministry official said. “There will be no checkpoints, but the forces will still be out on the streets.”

News of the sudden death of former southern rebel leader and newly sworn-in First Vice President John Garang two weeks ago sparked riots in Khartoum’s central commercial streets and suburbs.

Tit-for-tat violence followed, polarising the capital’s northern and southern communities.

But Khartoum has remained largely peaceful over the past week.

Garang signed a peace deal in January which ended Africa’s longest civil war in Sudan’s south and outlined a new coalition government, wealth sharing, democratic transformation and a southern referendum on secession from the north within six years.

He was first vice president for just three weeks before being killed in a helicopter crash in southern Sudan. His former deputy and successor, Salva Kiir, took up the post last week.