Eight people have been killed in fresh tribal fighting in Darfur, a region of western Sudan regularly wracked by violence, an NGO said on Thursday.
The clashes erupted late Wednesday night after an African Furs tribesman was killed during a dispute with an Arab Rizeichat tribesman in Zalingei, the central Darfur state capital, witnesses say.
Rishowat was attacked on motorcycles and later armed stoves installed at a camp for displaced people in Zalingeia, said Adam Regal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced Persons in Darfur.
“So far, eight people have been killed and eleven others injured,” he said.
Darfur is often the scene of tribal violence, caused in part by territorial disputes and difficulties in accessing water. Clashes in south Darfur on Saturday had already left at least 11 dead.
In 2003, a civil war broke out between the regime of President Omar al-Bashir, which was overthrown in 2019, and insurgents from ethnic minorities, which according to the UN left around 300,000 dead and almost 2.5 million displaced.
According to experts, tribal tensions in Sudan have exploded due to the security vacuum created by the October 2021 coup led by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, which sounded the death knell for the fragile transition that followed the sacking of Mr Bashir.
A deal signed this December between the military in power and civilian groups intended to pull the country out of a year of political crisis has been met with skepticism, having been described by pundits and pro-democracy activists as “vague” and “opaque.” “ was classified.
Tribal conflicts have killed more than 900 people, injured 1,000 and displaced nearly 300,000 this year, according to a recent UN report.