|
Khartoum Lifts Curfew After Violence Subsides
KHARTOUM, 16 August 2005 â Sudanese authorities have lifted a curfew imposed two weeks ago to stop the capitalâs worst violence in decades, which killed at least 111 people, Interior Ministry officials said yesterday. âWe have lifted the curfew,â the ministry official said. âThere will be no checkpoints, but the forces will still be out on the streets.âNews of the sudden death of former southern rebel leader and newly sworn-in First Vice President John Garang two weeks ago sparked riots in Khartoumâs central commercial streets and suburbs. Tit-for-tat violence followed, polarizing the capitalâs northern and southern communities. But Khartoum has remained largely peaceful over the past week. Meanwhile, about 13,000 refugees have been made homeless by floods in Sudanâs troubled Darfur region, in the worst rains for half a century, a government official said yesterday. El-Fatih Abdel Aziz, the governmentâs manager of Abou Shouk camp in North Darfur, told Reuters the heaviest rains seen in decades had damaged a dam built to prevent flooding in the camp next to the stateâs main town, El-Fasher. âThis dam... was damaged because of the heavy rain at night, and after that half of the camp was flooded,â he told Reuters from Darfur. âThe government intervened and gave every family blankets and corn.â He added non-governmental organizations working in the camp were to meet to decide whether to transfer the 13,000 displaced to another camp. Abou Shouk, just outside El-Fasher, houses about 50,000 Darfuris. Posted by: Steve White 2005-08-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=126904 |