SUDAN: Khartoum was quiet yesterday after three days of rioting in which a relief group said at least 130 people were killed following the death of former rebel leader and first vice-president John Garang.
However, millions of Sudanese living in slums and makeshift camps around the Sudanese capital were still suffering the effects of the violence.
Some in the Mayo camp, populated mostly by southern Sudanese and those who fled fighting in Darfur, said they were too afraid to leave their homes and there were food shortages, as movement between the capital and the camp had been cut off.
Police had surrounded the camp area to prevent rioters from there moving elsewhere.
In spite of a curfew, armed gangs of vigilantes roamed the streets of Khartoum in the days after Mr Garang's death in a helicopter crash was announced on Monday.
The Sudanese Red Crescent director said the death toll in the capital by Wednesday evening was 111, with six killed in Malakal and 13 in the southern town of Juba, where Mr Garang will be buried tomorrow.
The curfew was shortened yesterday, a sign the security situation in the capital was improving.
Many of Khartoum's commercial districts were in ruins, with shops burnt and looted and cars wrecked following the clashes.
More than 300 people were injured in violence in the city.
Mr Garang led the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in a bitter struggle with the Islamist Khartoum-based government for more than two decades before signing a peace deal in January to end Africa's longest civil war.
He returned to Khartoum to be sworn in as first vice-president on July 9th, and was working on forming a coalition government.
The peace deal involved wealth and power sharing, democratic elections within three years and a southern referendum on secession from the north within six years.
In southern Sudan, thousands of distraught and disbelieving followers flocked to see Mr Garang's body as it was transported from village to village by air for a final farewell.
The international aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it had moved into Mayo outside Khartoum to set up trauma clinics in case of further violence before the funeral.
MSF said the government had helped it bypass usual regulations because of the emergency situation, but other local non-governmental organisations said they were having trouble gaining access to the camps. - (Reuters)