Illegal alcohol kills 21 in Sudan

Alcohol use in Khartoum is becoming a major issue

At least 21 people have died in Sudan and another six have been blinded after drinking illegally-produced alcohol, the country's interior ministry says.

In a newspaper statement, the ministry warned people of the dangers of consuming contaminated alcohol.

It said a campaign was being launched to close down illegal breweries.

Alcohol sales are banned in northern Sudan under Islamic law, but displaced non-Muslim southerners living around Khartoum frequently brew their own.

Imposing Islamic Sharia law on a population with a sizeable non-Muslim minority has long proved difficult for Sudan's Islamist government, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum.

The unpopularity of Sharia in the mainly Christian south contributed to the 21-year-long civil war - and now the question of alcohol in Khartoum is proving a real headache, our correspondent says.

Two million southerners live around the capital in shantytowns and camps, displaced by decades of fighting.

Though making and selling alcohol is forbidden, the brewing of sorghum beer and date brandy has become common.

As part of the recent peace deal between the north and south, a commission is being set up to protect the rights of non-Muslims in Khartoum.

However, the government has made it clear that Sharia law and the selling of alcohol is not up for negotiation.