SUDAN: Thousands of rioters took to the streets of Khartoum yesterday following the death of the southern rebel leader turned first vice-president, John Garang.
Police officers said 24 people died as his southern Sudanese supporters clashed with security forces in the capital.
His body was recovered from the wreckage of a Ugandan helicopter that crashed in south Sudan en route to his headquarters in New Site.
The death of Dr Garang (60), who led the mainly Christian Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) into talks with the Muslim government in Khartoum, casts fresh doubt over a shaky peace deal signed in January.
In New York, Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, paid tribute to Dr Garang and appealed for calm.
"Here is a man who had lived and fought for peace and one united Sudan, and just as he was on the verge of achieving what he has lived and fought for, he is taken away from us," he said.
Thousands of southern Sudanese - some blaming the Khartoum government for their leader's death - smashed shop windows and torched cars in the capital. "They are beating anybody they see who looks like they are Arab," Swayd Abdullah, a student, told reporters.
The streets fell silent last night after police imposed a curfew.
Mourners also gathered in Rumbek, provisional capital of the south. The mood in the dusty market town was sombre although there were reports of violence elsewhere.
Dr Garang was returning from talks with president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda on Saturday when the helicopter crashed in poor weather. Six of his colleagues and the aircraft's seven-member crew also died.
President Museveni immediately ordered an independent inquiry in order to confirm the crash was an accident and not the result of sabotage or terrorism.
Sudanese president Omar el-Bashir declared three days of national mourning. He described Dr Garang's death as a huge blow, but insisted the peace would not be affected.
"We guarantee that the peace process will continue progressing in the same direction. His passing will only reinforce our determination to pursue the peace process."
Dr Garang was an army commander in 1983 when he was sent south to put down a mutiny of soldiers refusing a transfer to the north. Instead, he led other southern garrisons against the northern government.
By the time he signed a final peace deal in January, the conflict had become Africa's longest-running civil war and had claimed two million lives.
As part of the settlement he became president of the south and was appointed first vice-president of a transitional, joint north-south government in Khartoum.
Rapturous crowds thronged the capital when he was sworn in only three weeks ago. By then he had become a living symbol of a peace deal that offered hope to Africa's largest country.
The devolved settlement has been pushed repeatedly by the United Nations as a framework for reaching peace in a separate conflict in Darfur.
However, the peace in the south remains tentative, with several guerrilla groups still operating. Centuries-old tribal rivalries also flare into sporadic violence.
One Sudan expert with close ties to the southern rebel movement said: "What happens next is very, very interesting. In the worst case scenario, it's a south-south war.
"In the best case, we will see a democratic overhaul of the SPLM, which many people view currently as something of a dictatorship." The SPLM last night named Dr Garang's successor as Silva Kiir, chief of staff of the rebel guerrilla army since 1999 and vice-president of the south.
He is seen as adopting a more consensual style of decision-making, but lacks Dr Garang's international standing.
Jemera Rone, researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "Garang had been trying to hog all the decision-making power when members of the SPLM have been asking for more transparency and accountability.
"Everything was being run out of Garang's back pocket - now's the opportune time to have a system to replace one person that dominated."