In pictures: Sudan's John Garang

Sudan's vice-president and former rebel leader, John Garang, has died after the Ugandan presidential helicopter he was travelling in crashed in mountains in southern Sudan.

After devoting his life to fighting for the rights of southern Sudanese, he was named deputy to President Omar al-Bashir (r) just three weeks before he died.

In 1983 he was sent to quell a mutiny by southern soldiers and did not return to Khartoum for 22 years. The mainly Christian and animist southerners objected to moves to impose Islamic Sharia law.

He led the fight against the Islamist government for 21 years. In recent years, the US played a key role in pushing both sides to stop fighting and share the oil wealth which had been discovered...

...After years of talks in Kenya, a peace deal was signed in January, under which John Garang would become vice-president, alongside the man who led the government's negotiating team Ali Osman Taha (l).

Mr Garang made a triumphal return to southern Sudan - cattle were slaughtered in traditional celebration.

Southerners rejoiced, hoping that the end of the war would bring infrastructure such as the roads, schools and health clinics they lacked...

... When John Garang arrived in Khartoum in July to take up his post of vice-president, more than one million people turned out to welcome him.

During his brief time as vice-president, he welcomed to his offices US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for talks about ending the separate war in Sudan's Darfur region.

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