Khartoum, Sudan – Sudanese Vice President John Garang, a former rebel leader who is a key figure in the country’s fledgling peace deal, died when a Ugandan presidential plane he was traveling in crashed into a southern Sudan mountain range, Sudan’s president said today.
The crash site was found near the Uganda-Sudan border, a senior Ugandan official said.
“It has now been confirmed that the plane crashed after it hit a mountain range in southern Sudan because of poor visibility and this resulted in the death of Dr. John Garang DeMabior, six of his colleagues and seven other crew members of the Ugandan presidential plane,” according to a statement released by the office of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.
Garang’s death would be a heavy blow to the January peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south in which some 2 million people died.
The 60-year-old former rebel was sworn in as vice president just three weeks ago. Garang, who earned a doctorate from Iowa State University, was seen as the sole figure with the weight to give southern Sudanese a role in the Khartoum government, which they deeply mistrust. He also was a strong voice against outright secession by the south, calling instead for autonomy and power-sharing.
Sudanese have celebrated the power-sharing agreement – and a new constitution signed afterward – as opening a new chapter of peace and as a chance to resolve other bloody conflicts in Sudan, including the humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.
