Sudan situation 'totally bad'

2005-08-04 09:45

Juba - Thousands of northern Sudanese have fled the capital of autonomous south Sudan after being targeted by deadly violence in the wake of ex-southern rebel leader John Garang's weekend death, residents said on Wednesday.

Amid threats of new attacks from Garang's mainly Christian and animist supporters and soaring tensions ahead of his funeral on Saturday, Arab and Muslim shopkeepers and their families have left the town in droves, they said.

As heavy gunfire was heard in the town on Wednesday despite a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed after at least 18 people were killed in riots that erupted on Monday, dozens of fearful northern Sudanese families cowered in a makeshift camp near the heavily protected Juba airport.

"No choice" but to flee for safety

"They burnt down our shops and homes and we had no choice but to find safety," said one trader at the airport where a sea of people in similar circumstances dozed on boxes and nylon sacks filled with their belongings.

He and others said supporters of Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had rampaged through the town, attacking their shops and stalls on Monday after the charismatic ex-rebel leader's death was confirmed.

They said southerners had set their shops and stalls ablaze and threatened to kill them if they did not leave Juba or at least go into hiding and most obliged, leaving the town for Khartoum or the relative safety of the airport.

Sudan "totally bad"

"After his (Garang's) death, this place has become uninhabitable," said a second northern Sudanese businessman who, like the first, is of Arab descent.

"It is totally bad," said Hussein Hijab, who donned in a cream-white prayer robe was one of very few to have fled Juba willing to give his name.

Under the terms of a landmark peace deal that ended Sudan's 21-year north-south civil war, Juba will be the capital of autonomous southern Sudan until 2011, when the south will hold a referendum on secession from the north.

Garang, who signed the agreement and on July 9 became the first vice-president in Sudan's new national unity government and president of the autonomous south in accordance with the pact, was killed on Saturday in a helicopter crash.

Many southern Sudanese refuse to believe official explanations that his death was an accident and that the chopper went down in poor weather and accuse Khartoum of assassinating the man who personified their struggle for more than two decades.

- AFP