Hundreds flogged after riots

2005-08-05 11:41

Khartoum - Sudanese courts have ordered more than 500 people to be jailed or flogged after convicting them of public order offences in connection with deadly riots this week, officials said on Thursday.

Offences included rioting, unlawful assembly, looting and destruction of public and private property, prosecutor general Salah Eddin Abuzaid told the official SUNA news agency.

Those convicted were among more than 1 400 people, nearly all of them southerners, who were detained following three days of rioting that rocked the capital after the death of southern leader John Garang in a helicopter crash last Saturday, officials said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said at least 130 people had died as southerners vented their anger on northerners, particularly shopkeepers.

Police said they had recovered a large haul of looted goods in a raid on a southwestern neighbourhood of Khartoum in which 32 southerners were arrested on Thursday.

Items seized included computers, refrigerators, television sets and air-conditioners, they said.

The ICRC said order had been restored to all parts of Khartoum on Thursday after overnight reports of violence in some districts.

- AFP