The conflict between two tribes this week in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, bordering Ethiopia, has left 31 dead, according to a new toll announced on Saturday by local authorities.
According to the communiqué of the security services of this State “39 people were injured and 16 stores burned downfrom Monday to Friday during this conflict – with firearms according to witnesses – for land.
On Friday evening, after the deployment of troops to intervene, Governor Ahmed al-Omda issued an order prohibiting “any gathering or parade” for a month. On Saturday a night curfew was imposed in addition. Because of these clashes between the Hausa and Barti tribes in the district of Qissan, hospitals in the surrounding area have launched an appeal for blood donation.
A Hausa dignitary told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the violence erupted because his clan was demanding “the formation of a local civil authority to oversee access to land, which the Bartis refuse“.
Resurgence of tribal violence
On the Barti side, a dignitary who also refused to have his name exposed, said his clan had responded “to a violation of the lands of the Bartisby the Hausa people. “These lands are ours, so if we want to form a local authority, it will be composed only of Bartis and not Hausa“, he hammered.
The region of Qissan, and more generally the State of Blue Nile, has been plagued by a rebellion since 1986. The southern guerrillas have long been a thorn in the side of the dictatorship of Omar el-Bashir, dismissed by the army under pressure from the streets in 2019.
For experts, the security vacuum created by this coup has favored a resurgence of tribal violence in a country where each year hundreds of civilians die in clashes between herders and farmers for access to water or land. .