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The people of South Kordofan have become caught up in the unresolved contradiction of the post-John Garang Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which is now leading South Sudan into independence; what happens when a national federalist political movement becomes an ethnic separatist political movement? This is the problem in several areas of Sudan outside the new borders of South Sudan, areas in which the then federalist SPLM/A recruited fighters to combat the Khartoum regime in the interests of creating a federal “New Sudan.” With South Sudan declaring full independence on July 9, a force of roughly 40,000 Nuba SPLA fighters...

In Uganda, an opposition parliamentarian says he will be looking into the cause of the plane crash last week that killed Sudanese vice president and former rebel leader John Garang. The plane went down in bad weather over Sudanese airspace after taking off from Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. Parliamentarian Aggrey Awori is a member of the Uganda People’s Progress Party and a member of several parliamentary committees, including the Presidential and Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee of Defense and Internal Affairs, and the Commitee on Works and Communications. Mr. Awori says the three will investigate the crash. He told...

Uganda's president said Friday the chopper crash that killed Sudanese vice president John Garang may not have been an accident, dropping a bombshell on thousands mourning the death of the ex-rebel leader in south Sudan. "Some people say accident, it may be an accident, it may be something else," President Yoweri Museveni said, becoming the first official of any government to publicly suggest last Saturday's crash may have been the result of foul play. "The (helicopter) was very well equipped, this was my (helicopter) the one I am flying all the time, I am not ruling anything out," he said,...

The shaky peace following 20 years of civil war in the Sudan may be coming apart as communal violence erupted in Khartoum following the death in an air crash on July 30 of Sudanese vice president and former rebel leader John Garang. “It has been planned to bury the body of the late Dr. John Garang in Juba Saturday, Aug. 6,” the provincial secretary of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, the Rev. Enock Tombe, told The Living Church. “The funeral service will be held at All Saints’ Cathedral. The late Dr. Garang was a Christian of the Episcopal Church...

Garang in plane scare Published: Monday, 1 August, 2005, 12:04 PM Doha Time KHARTOUM: Sudanese state television said yesterday that the authorities were still trying to locate an aircraft carrying First Vice President John Garang amid contradictory reports on its fate. “Sudanese President Omar Bashir contacted his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni to try and locate the aircraft carrying the first vice president,” state television said, reading a statement from Bashir’s office. “Garang left Kampala heading for the New Sight camp in southern Sudan and contact was lost with the plane,” it said. State television had initially reported that air traffic...

Violent Mobs Surge Through Sudan Capital By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 48 minutes ago Violent mobs surged again into the streets of Sudan's capital Tuesday, a day after 36 people died in riots sparked by the death of Sudanese vice president and former southern rebel leader John Garang. The initial violence Monday was blamed on Garang supporters from the Christian and animist south who blamed his death in a helicopter crash on Sudan's Muslim-dominated government, but both northerners and southerners reportedly staged attacks Tuesday after a quiet morning. Arab gangs invaded some neighborhoods heavily populated by southerners...

August 2, 2005 Death of Sudan Rebel Leader Imperils Fragile Hope for Peace By MARC LACEY NEW SITE, Sudan, Aug. 1 - With Sudan's confirmation on Monday that the rebel leader John Garang had died in a helicopter crash, this country's fragile peace plunged into the unknown. And angry southerners rioted in the capital, accusing the government of orchestrating his death just three weeks after he was selected as vice president. Demonstrators cried, "Murderers! Murderers!" as they burned cars, threw stones, and in some cases physically attacked Arabs in the capital, Khartoum. Meanwhile, with Mr. Garang's body lying in the...

It has now been confirmed that our dear brother, Dr. John Garang, 1st Vice President of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan, with others, died in a helicopter crash, South East of New Cush on the Sudan- Uganda border slightly beyond Kidepo National Park. Dr. Garang's party comprising of 5 other Sudanese and a number of Ugandans were flying to a place known as New Site, one of his Headquarters in Southern Sudan. He was returning from a two days consultation with me at Rwakitura.

Large-scale riots have broken out in Sudan's capital Khartoum following the death of the country's vice-president, former rebel leader John Garang. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says gangs of youths from southern Sudan, like Mr Garang, are battling the security forces and looting cars. Mr Garang died in a helicopter crash as he was returning from Uganda. He signed a deal to end 21 years of civil war in January and was sworn in as vice-president three weeks ago. The protesters are throwing stones and smashing office windows. Gunfire can be heard and the security forces are trying to...

Sudan's Vice-President John Garang, a former rebel leader, has been killed in a crash, a UN official has said. Mr Garang had been missing since Saturday, when contact was lost with his helicopter flying back from Uganda. He was greeted as a peacemaker by more than a million people when he was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a deal ending a decades-long civil war. The BBC's Jonah Fisher says Mr Garang's importance in holding together southern Sudan cannot be overstated.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A plane carrying the former rebel who ascended to Sudan’s No. 2 leadership post has disappeared after losing contact, a Sudanese Cabinet minister said Monday on state television, contradicting earlier reports. The statement came hours after state television interrupted its regular programming to say that Vice President John Garang “has landed safely at a camp in southern Sudan” after his flight from Uganda was reported missing in bad weather on Sunday. Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said Sudan’s president had ordered the country’s air force to search for the aircraft. Garang, 60, is a charismatic figure whose leadership...

Ex-rebel leader John Garang has been sworn in as Sudan's vice-president, ending two decades of bitter civil war. President Omar al-Bashir signed a power-sharing constitution with Mr Garang's followers at a ceremony in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Southern Sudan is to be given some autonomy and former rebels will take up seats in the country's government. One-and-a-half million people died in 20 years of fighting between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south. A full power-sharing government is due to be formed next month. As well as being named national vice-president, Mr Garang will head the autonomous administration in southern Sudan...

Sudan's child soldiers lay down arms (Filed: 31/01/2004) The prospects of ending Africa's longest conflict appear better than ever. Adrian Blomfield reports from war-ravaged Tam About 100 children, some as young as 10, lope two abreast towards a parade ground, the harsh Sudanese sun glinting on their rifles. They break into a trot, wheeling precisely before coming to a halt. A man in civilian clothes steps forward and tells the children of 2 Brigade that their war is over. "There were problems in this area. That is why you were taken, all of you, including the girls," says Paul Pouk...

Sudan's peace talks have taken a major step forward with an agreement between the government and the main rebel group to share oil resources. The deal, reached in Kenya, paves the way for a comprehensive peace accord. At the moment, the government controls all the country's oil revenues, but the SPLA rebels have demanded a share. A final peace settlement is expected to be reached soon to end 20 years of civil war in Sudan that have left about two million people dead. Fighting over percentages Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang...

COLIN POWELL, America's secretary of state, took a two-hour break this week to drop in on Sudan's peace talks. Apparently, that was long enough. On October 22nd, for the first time, the Sudanese government and southern rebels agreed to a deadline (the end of the year) for signing a power-sharing pact to end the world's longest-running civil war. The conflict, said John Garang, the rebel leader, will be over by Christmas. At Mr Powell's press conference in Naivasha, the Kenyan town where the talks are taking place, rebels and government officials grinned, applauded and even hugged. Sudan has been at...

KHARTOUM: The United States has agreed to lift its sanctions on Sudan and remove the country from its list of nations sponsoring terrorism, independent Al Rai Al Aam daily reported Saturday. Reporting from New York, the newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail as saying “lifting the sanctions and taking the Sudan’s name from the list of terrorism have been agreed upon and what remains now is the timing of making those steps.” The agreement was reached after meetings Ismail held with several US officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, the newspaper reported. On Friday, the...