Sudan Darfur Clashes Leave at Least 132 People Dead in Recent Days
Intercommunal clashes in Sudan's West Darfur state have left at least 132 people dead in recent days, its governor said Thursday.
Members of the Massalit
and Arab communities have fought since Saturday in and around the state capital
El Geneina, trading gun and heavy weapons fire.
Sudan's government has
declared a state of emergency in the region.
"According to medical reports, the
number of dead is now 132," Mohamed Abdallah Douma, the governor of the
region bordering Chad, told a press conference in Khartoum.
"The situation is now relatively
stable," he said, adding that there was "looting" but "no
more fighting".
Douma blamed the
fighting on militia militants but the UN had said the conflict was between
Sudan's Massalit and the Arab communities, the latest in a string of clashes
since January, which has forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes,
according to AFP.
Sudan is in the midst of
a rocky transition following the toppling of long-time president Omar al-Bashir
in April 2019, following mass protests against his rule.
The transitional
government has pushed to build peace with rebel groups in Sudan's main conflict
zones, including Darfur, where UN peacekeepers were recently withdrawn.
Thousands have fled the
latest outbreak of violence, some escaping into Chad, according to the United
Nations.
The clashes have seen a
power station destroyed, an ambulance attacked and a rocket-propelled grenade
hitting the key Sultan Tajeldin Hospital.
The vast Darfur region
was previously ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003, leaving around
300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.
It flared when ethnic
minority rebels rose up against Bashir's Arab-dominated government.
Khartoum responded by
unleashing a notorious Arab-dominated militia known as the Janjaweed, recruited
from among the region's nomadic tribes.
The conflict has
subsided over the years, and the latest in a string of peace deals was agreed
in October.
But after years of
conflict, the region is awash with automatic weapons and clashes still erupt,
often over land and access to water.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide during the Darfur conflict.
