At least 168 people have been killed in clashes between rival populations in the same region over the weekend, the independent aid organization General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur reported on Sunday. The organization then indicated that it feared that the death toll would rise further.
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. Some 20,000 people have been displaced by the violence. Aid organizations are therefore calling for the return of the international peacekeeping mission, which withdrew from the area from January 2020.
A civil war broke out in Darfur in 2003 that killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million people. Since the end of 2020, the region has again been faced with flaring and often deadly conflicts. These mainly revolve around arguing about land, livestock, access to water and grazing land. Last year alone, 430,000 people fled the region again, according to various aid organizations.
