Sudan Vice President Garang dead - UN official

John Garang

LONDON - Sudan's former rebel leader, First Vice-President John Garang, has died, apparently in a helicopter accident while flying back from Uganda to Sudan, a UN official said on Monday.

Rudi Muller, head of the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in southern Sudan, said he had been told of Garang's death by the governor of the Lake State in southern Sudan.

"It was the governor of the Lake State who told us in a meeting at 3.30 am that Doctor Garang has been killed in an accident and they would like to brief us in a meeting at 7.30 am," he said.

The governor, Pagan Amum, had no further details. Amum is also a senior official in Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Uganda said earlier on Monday that it had been searching since Sunday morning in the Kidepo area, which lies on the border with Sudan, for Garang, whose helicopter went missing late on Saturday as he returned from talks with President Yoweri Museveni.

"We share the anxiety of the public since it is now 24 hours since the estimated arrival of the helicopter at its destination," said a statement issued by Museveni early on Monday from his ranch at Rwakitura, about 300 km southwest of the capital Kampala.

"Since (Sunday) morning, we have been searching the Kidepo area to locate the chopper without success," it said.

Garang waged a two-decade war against Khartoum from southern Sudan until a peace deal in January, under which he became vice-president on July 9.

- REUTERS