Ethnic groups clash in Sudan’s capital

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan’s capital erupted into ethnic and sectarian conflict Tuesday, with bands of northerners and southerners staging attacks on each other in an outpouring of anger sparked by the death of a former rebel leader turned vice president.

Frightened residents carried clubs and bricks for protection, fearful of the deadly reprisal violence between Muslim Arabs and residents from Sudan’s south enraged over the death of John Garang, killed Saturday when his helicopter crashed into a mountain range in bad weather.

At least 49 people were killed in the violence that started Monday, according to a U.N. official, though the number was not officially confirmed.

Armed gangs, said to be Arabs, broke into homes of southerners in several parts of the capital. Television footage showed southerners’ homes torn apart, furniture smashed and doors hanging on hinges.

At the same time, Muslim neighborhoods came under attack by supporters of Garang, who led a two-decade rebellion in Sudan’s mostly Christian and animist south before becoming the country’s vice president in a peace deal.

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.