Not less than 168 people were killed in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), described as tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s Darfur province on Sunday night.
The bloody clashes which is one of the deadliest bouts of violence in the war-ravaged country in recent years, took place in the West Darfur province, and is coming at a time Sudan has been plunged into serious turmoil since a military coup last year.
The military coup which ended the country’s transition to democracy after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, has also led to street protests which has seen close to 100 people killed.
The Sunday night killings further raises questions over the ability of the military leaders to bring security to the troubled Darfur, a region that has been wracked by years of civil war.
Spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, Adam Regal, who confirmed the fighting in a statement on Monday, said Sunday’s fighting in West Darfur’s Kreinik area also wounded 98 people.
“The fighting grew out of the killing of two people by unknown assailants on Thursday,” he said.
“On Sunday, large numbers of people armed with heavy weapons launched a major attack on Kreinik, torching and looting properties. The fighting lasted for several hours and forced thousands of people to flee their homes,” Regal added.
According to Regal whose group provides food and other assistance to displaced people in the region, the clashes eventually reached Genena, where militias and armed groups attacked wounded people while they were being treated at the city’s main hospital.
“The area was burned down, and many people were killed. There was no intervention from the local government to stop the fighting,” d Salah Saleh, a doctor and former medical director at a local hospital also said.
The Darfur has been an epicenter of deadly fighting between rival tribes in recent months as the country remains steeped in a wider crisis following the October coup, while Kreinik was also the scene of clashes in December that killed at least 88 people.