Fighting in the Kreinik area of west Darfur province also injured 98 others, according to a Sudanese relief group.
At least 168 people have been killed in fighting between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, a Sudanese aid group said.
Adam Regal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced Persons in Darfur, said on Sunday that fighting in the Kreinik area of west Darfur province also injured 98 others.
He said the clashes first broke out on Thursday with the killing of two people by an unidentified attacker in Kreinik, some 30 km (18 miles) east of Genena, the provincial capital of west Darfur.
The clashes later reached Genena, where armed groups attacked injured people while they were being treated at the city’s main hospital, according to Salah Saleh, a doctor and former medical director at the hospital.
Pictures posted online on Sunday showed burning houses sending thick plumes of black smoke skyward, while others showed circular patches of scorched earth where shacks had stood before being set on fire.
The AFP news agency could not independently verify the authenticity of the images.
The International Committee of the Red Cross called on the authorities to ensure the safe arrival of the wounded at the hospitals.
‘Janjaweed’ accused
On Sunday, the charity accused the government-backed militia Janjaweed of orchestrating the latest attacks.
The mainly Arab armed group rose to prominence in the early 2000s for its role in suppressing an ethnic minority rebellion in Darfur.
Many of its members have since been integrated into the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which human rights groups say are commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Sudan’s de facto deputy leader.
Regal said the armed group had “committed murders, arson, looting and torture without mercy” in recent weeks.
The conflict, which erupted in 2003, has affected ethnic minority rebels who have complained of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government of then President Omar al-Bashir.
Al-Bashir’s government responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, recruited mainly from pastoralist Arab tribes who were blamed for atrocities such as murder, rape, looting, and the burning of villages.
According to the United Nations, the conflict killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
Large-scale fighting has subsided across much of Darfur, but the region remains awash with guns and fighting over access to pasture or water is frequent.
Deadly clashes between rival tribes have erupted in Sudan’s Darfur region in recent months as the country remains mired in a wider crisis following last year’s coup when senior generals toppled a civilian-led government.
The October coup upended the country’s fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising prompted the military to overthrow al-Bashir in April 2019.