Tribal clashes spread in Sudan’s Darfur: chief

KHARTOUM, Sudan (UPDATED) – Fighting between rival Arab tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region spread on Monday, after clashes last week left scores dead, a leader of one of the tribes said.

“This morning there was fighting in the Garsila area. It’s still going on,” said Ahmed Khiri, a Misseriya tribal chief.

The rival Salamat tribe could not immediately be reached for comment and Khiri had no further details.

Garsila is about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the Abugaradil area, where fighting between the two tribes on Friday and Saturday killed 94 people, mostly Salamat, Khiri said at the weekend.

The Salamat said 52 of their men died during those clashes in the southwest of Darfur on the borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.

Inter-tribal and inter-ethnic fighting has been the major source of violence in Darfur this year, leading to the displacement of an estimated 300,000 people in the first five months alone, the African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) says.

That is more than in the previous two years combined.

Fighting between Misseriya and Salamat in April led 50,000 to flee into Chad, the United Nations said.

The two tribes signed a peace agreement on July 3 under which they were to pay compensation to each other, and refugees would return.

On Saturday in North Darfur state, two other Arab tribes, the Beni Hussein and Rezeigat, inked a peace deal to end a separate conflict, which a member of parliament said killed hundreds over several weeks.

Darfur’s top official, Eltigani Seisi, told the ceremony that “absence of the state authorities led to fighting”, and he called for a clampdown by security forces.

He was quoted by the official SUNA news agency.

At the same event, Vice President Ali Osman Taha said President Omar al-Bashir is “working out a comprehensive vision on finding radical solutions to Sudan’s problems and addressing causes of conflict in Darfur,” SUNA reported.

Bashir is wanted by The Hague-based International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur.

The Salamat in April had accused members of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police of joining fighting in Rahad el Berdi near Umm Dukhun in Darfur, which the tribe said left dozens dead.

UN experts and human rights activists have also accused government security forces of involvement in Darfur’s tribal fighting.

But Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of UNAMID, has said the nature of the tribal disputes — mainly competition for land, water and mineral rights — made it hard to tell who was on which side as police and militia also had ethnic affiliations.

Prior to this year’s surge of violence, there were already 1.4 million people in camps for people uprooted by Darfur’s conflict, which began a decade ago when rebels from ethnic minority groups rose up against what they saw as the domination of Sudan’s power and wealth by Arab elites.

Security problems have more recently been compounded by the inter-tribal fighting, kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes, many suspected to be the work of government-linked militia and paramilitary groups.- Rappler.com