Bootleg booze kills 20
2005-03-20 19:52
Khartoum - At least 20 people have died in central Sudan after drinking bootleg alcohol in defiance of Islamic law, police said on Sunday.
Eight others were left blind after drinking the spirits which were distilled in Khartoum and the central state of Gezira, police added.
Former Sudanese president Jaafar Nimeiry imposed Islamic sharia law in 1983, closing breweries and distilleries across Sudan and banning the sale of alcoholic drinks.
The mostly Christian and animist south of the country was later exempted from sharia, although it is applied to southerners and non-Muslims living in the north.
But continued demand for liquor has created a thriving alcohol black market, with individuals setting up makeshift stills in the north and smugglers bringing in spirits across Sudan's eastern borders.
Sudan tolerates the importing of alcoholic beverages by Western diplomats as long as they consume them within the confines of their embassies and diplomatic quarters.