Lieutenant General Kiir is due to be sworn as first vice president at a brief ceremony in Khartoum on Thursday, replacing the charismatic Garang who died in a helicopter crash on July 30 after only three weeks in the job.

Kiir, chairman of the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), will fly to Khartoum from Rumbek in south Sudan in a presidential aircraft, the Sudanese press reported.

The press added that he will be received at Khartoum airport by dignitaries including political and religious leaders as well as community leaders from the north and south.

The authorities stepped up security in the capital and its suburbs ahead of the visit, deploying additional armed police and soldiers on the streets, which witnessed deadly riots in the wake of Garang’s death.