At least 27 people have been killed and dozens more injured in fresh tribal clashes in western and southern Sudan in recent days, tribal dignitaries and local officials told AFP on Tuesday (June 7th). .
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At least 16 people were killed in clashes between Arab and non-Arab tribes in the locality of Kolbus 160 km from El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, according to officials from the two rival tribes involved . “The violence stems from a territorial dispute between a member of an Arab tribe and a farmer from a non-Arab tribesaid a leader of the non-Arab Gimir tribe. “They left eight dead among the Gimirs and three villages were burnt down.“. Reached by telephone by AFP, a dignitary of the Arab Rzeigat tribe for his part reported “eight deadin its ranks, claiming that “clashes still continue“. In the south of the country,at least 11 people were killed and 35 injured in clashes between the (Arab) Kenana and al-Hawazma tribesin the town of Abu Jebeiha in South Kordofan state, a resident involved in the ongoing mediation to reconcile the two tribes told AFP.
This mediator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained to AFP that the dispute had started between two members of these rival tribes, before involving their communities, who used “firearms“. The guns finally fell silent on Monday evening, according to the same source. On Tuesday, the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, pleaded on Twitter for mediation efforts to “protect civiliansin areas where clashes between Arab and African herders and farmers over territorial disputes or access to water regularly lead to deaths.
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In Darfur, where for a long time the military-Islamist dictatorship of Omar el-Bashir – who fell in 2019 – used Arab tribes as militiamen in his service, more than 200 people were thus killed in April. For experts, this outbreak of violence is partly explained by the security vacuum caused by the putsch led in October by the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which plunged the country a little more, l one of the poorest in the world, in economic and political distress.
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