By Mohamed Amin
KHARTOUM, Sudan
At least 100 people were killed – and scores injured – during three days of tribal clashes that rocked Sudan’s volatile Darfur region this week, according to multiple sources.
The clashes, which took place in the Abyad area of Darfur’s Sunut locality, reportedly erupted on Tuesday and continued until Thursday.
A medical source at the Buram local hospital said the hospital had received 100 bodies as of Thursday afternoon.
“We received 100 bodies and around 250 injured, some of whom are in critical condition,” the source, insisting on anonymity, told Anadolu Agency, adding that a number of of the injured had since been transferred to the nearby Nyala hospital.
According to local eyewitnesses, the fighting pitted South Darfur’s Riziegat tribe against the rival Habbanya tribe.
Cattle raids
Ahmed Fadul, a Riziegat tribesman, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the clashes had erupted on Tuesday night following a cattle raid by Habbanya fighters.
“Riziegar tribesmen were defending themselves and their property,” he said. “We lost around 70 fighters while the same number was killed from the other side.”
However, Alfaki Gad Almula of the Habbanya tribe said that violence began after members of his tribe were attacked by heavily-armed Riziegat fighters.
“A large group of Rizeigat – in land-cruisers and on horseback – attacked Habbaniya tribesmen in Abyad with rocket-propelled grenades,” he asserted.
Almula went on to tell Anadolu Agency that the Abyad area had been littered with dozens of dead bodies until Thursday evening.
More than 130 Rizeigat and 40 Habaniya tribesmen had been killed and the entire village burned to the ground, Almula said, while the injured were transferred to Buram hospital.
Local authorities in South Darfur State, meanwhile, have since confirmed the clashes, but have refrained from providing a death toll.
In a Thursday press statement, South Darfur Governor Adam Alfaki urged both tribes to refrain from further violence.
Alfaki, in an official decree issued Thursday (a copy of which was seen by Anadolu Agency), also dismissed the local commissioner of Sunut locality.
According to the governor, the Sudanese authorities had since dispatched security forces to the area to contain the situation.
Sudan’s Darfur region frequently sees tribal conflicts, which in recent years have claimed thousands of lives.
Last May, hundreds were killed during days-long tribal clashes between the Rizeigat and the Maalya tribes.
According to the UN, at least 400,000 people in the region have been displaced within the past six months alone due to both tribal conflicts and ongoing fighting between Khartoum and Darfurian rebel groups.
