Aid organization: at least 168 dead in flaring tribal violence in Darfur | Abroad

The large-scale violence is said to have erupted when armed Arab nomads attacked villages belonging to the non-Arab Massalit minority in retaliation for a previous double murder.

In the attack early Sunday morning, properties were set on fire and looted. The fighting lasted for several hours and forced thousands of people to flee their homes, Adam Regal, a spokesman for the aid organization General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, said. He fears the death toll could rise further. At least 98 were also injured. Some 20,000 people have been displaced by the violence.

The violence even reached Genena, the AP news agency reported, where militias and armed groups attacked the wounded while they were being treated at the city’s main hospital. According to Salah Saleh, a doctor and former medical director of the hospital, the local government did nothing to stop the violence.

Authorities say more troops and a military plane have been sent to the region since fighting broke out on Thursday, leaving eight people dead and at least 16 injured. Volker Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan, called for a thorough investigation into those responsible for the attack.

Darfur, where a civil war broke out in 2003 that killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million people, has seen renewed and often deadly conflict since late 2020. These mainly revolve around quarrels about land, livestock, access to water and grazing land. Last year alone, 430,000 people fled the region again, according to various aid organizations.

Aid organization General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur is therefore calling for the return of the international peacekeeping mission, which withdrew from the area from January 2020.