By Tanalee Smith
Khartoum - Frightened Sudanese carried clubs for protection as another day of violence turned to bloody revenge attacks between Muslim Arabs and Khartoum residents from the mostly Christian and animist south, enraged and saddened over the death of their hero John Garang.
Armed gangs, said to be Arabs, broke into homes of southerners in several parts of the capital on Tuesday, and Garang supporters attacked Muslim neighborhoods. At least 49 people were killed over two days, according to a United Nations official, though the number was not officially confirmed.
Television footage showed southerners' homes torn apart, furniture smashed and doors hanging on hinges. In some neighbourhoods, southern men carried sticks and bricks, saying they had heard that northerners were coming and they needed to protect themselves.
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A dusk-to-dawn curfew was declared for the second night in a row. In the evening, four armored vehicles sat parked on a downtown street, facing the direction of Omdurman, Khartoum's sister-city across the Nile, where some of the worst clashes were reported.
The death of Garang, the southern rebel leader-turned-vice president, ruptured the long coexistence in Khartoum between northerners and the nearly two million southerners who live in squatter neighbourhoods in the city and in four massive refugee camps on its outskirts.
Violence between the communities has been uncommon, even during the 21-year civil war between Garang's rebels and the Khartoum government, which is dominated by Muslim Arabs. The war was fought hundreds of kilometres away in the south, and drove thousands of southerners to the capital. - Sapa-AP
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