Khartoum- Al-Yurae ( agencies) – At least 200 people were killed and 98 injured in tribal clashes in The Town of Krenik in Sudan’s Western Darfur state, a spokesman for the displaced was quoted by Reuters as saying.
This is the latest escalation of such incidents in the region torn apart by tribal conflicts.
According to local media sources, the conflict began because of the killing of a group belonging to a tribe of Arab Bedouins around the town of Karnik, which is inhabited by a majority of the Masalit tribes, and demanded, as explained by a group of Arab tribes residents of the town to hand over the perpetrators of the crime and threatened revenge if rejected, then returned a large group of estimated 1,000 fighters the next day and attacked the town, leaving a large number of dead as well as attacking the local government center and burning large areas of nearby houses.
Several sources in the region stressed that the conflict between these tribes is old and is renewed annually between the pastoral nomadic tribes, the Masalit tribe and some tribes living in the area and that there is nothing to do with the government authorities in the case of several international media reports and statements by officials of humanitarian organizations operating in the region.
The state of Western Darfur is home to many displaced by the conflict in the early 2000s in the region, which saw the government crack down on armed rebels with the help of armed Arab Bedouin factions known as janjaweed.
Some 2.5 million people have been displaced in the violence and 300,000 have been killed. Former President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. The trial of one of his aides, Ali Kushib, began this month.
The General Coordinator of Displaced Persons and Refugees accused the janjweed militias of trying to clear the area to control the land.
It called for the return of international peacekeepers, who withdrew from January 2020.
Representatives of Arab tribes did not respond to requests for comment on the reuters bulletin.
The General Coordinator published pictures of burning buildings. The Darfur Bar Association said the violence had displaced some 20,000 people.
Aid groups said tension spilled over into the nearby city of Geneina, where shops were ordered closed after sunset.
“Other violence in cities, which killed and injured hundreds of civilians in The City of Geneina last year, is a very real and imminent possibility,” a relief official said.
Violence in Darfur has escalated since the October 2020 agreement between the country’s transitional government after Al-Bashir and armed groups fought in the region.
Aid groups say some 430,000 people were displaced last year alone.
“The bloody events and conflicts between tribes and armed militias have escalated at a higher pace than they were before the Juba Agreement, and this reveals that there is no positive impact of the Juba Agreement on people’s lives and security in all Darfur states,” the Darfur Lawyers’ Association said in a statement on Saturday.
Western Darfur has long been known for tribal conflicts between Arab Bedouin pastoral tribes and other tribes living in those areas and in the past decades between them and displaced people from pastoral areas before the previous government turned conflicts in the region into political battles after its use of Arab Bedouin tribes to fight armed movements in the area opposed to the government and its aftermath of the events in Darfur.
