NAIROBI, Kenya — More violence erupted in Sudan's shaken capital, Khartoum, yesterday after the death over the weekend of former rebel leader John Garang, who rose to become the fractured country's vice president in a peace deal many hoped would end Africa's longest war.

The clashes echoed the same ethnic and religious tensions between Sudan's Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south that fueled the country's 21-year civil war.

Plumes of smoke rising from burning cars and the government helicopters sent to fly over tense shantytown neighborhoods were signs of the country's renewed fragility.

The morning was quiet. But with the midday heat, mobs of northern Sudanese young people lashed out against southern Sudanese in retaliation for their rioting against northern businesses and property Monday. At least 49 people died in the violence that started Monday, according to a U.N. official, The Associated Press reported, though the number was not officially confirmed. Southern Sudanese looted and burned cars and fired guns in the air Monday, accusing the government of a plot to kill their leader.

Garang was killed in a helicopter crash blamed on inclement weather a few miles from his base, New Site village, in southern Sudan. He was returning from an official visit to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his ranch.

"Things are bad here. Arab gangs are going to neighborhoods and attacking people with swords and sticks. This is a retaliation from yesterday's riots," said Alfred Taban, publisher of the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan's only independent English-language newspaper.

Garang's successor, Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is expected to become the new government's vice president, made his first public appearance as the south's new leader.

He went on radio and television to say the country needed to chart a path forward and he repeated that no foul play was involved in Garang's death. It was one of the first tests of the leadership of Kiir, who has little political experience but is outspoken and popular among the troops he commands.

Garang was an autocratic leader, which some analysts say was an asset for a rebel movement prone to splits along ethnic lines.

By contrast, Kiir's style is more collegial, which could be a liability, considering the often-fractious nature of the rebel movement.

Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a Kenyan who helped mediate the peace talks in Kenya, was optimistic about Kiir's leadership, saying he might prove to be a more open and popular leader.

"He's someone who wanted to give power to the people," the general said, adding that Kiir recently pressured Garang to open up decision-making by Garang's often dictatorial movement.

More than 1 million people celebrated at the historic ceremony in Khartoum on July 8, when Garang was sworn in as vice president under a U.S.-backed peace deal between the Arab-led Khartoum government and the largely African rebels of the south, who had long fought for separation.

Meanwhile, the country prepared for the funeral. Wailing women gathered throughout the country and an elaborate traditional funeral was prepared. Cows will be slaughtered and all-night wakes will be held. Garang will be buried in a state funeral in the main southern town of Juba on Saturday.