Tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have killed at least 83 people in the latest bout of violence, according to a tally by the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD), Al Jazeera reported.
“The death toll from the bloody events taking place in the city of al-Geneina … has increased since Saturday morning … [to] 84,” CCSD, a local branch of the country’s doctors’ union, said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement added that the clashes left 160 wounded, including members of the armed forces.
Saturday’s clashes initially pitted the Massalit tribe against Arab nomads in al-Geneina, about two weeks after the United Nations and African Union ended a 13-year peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
The violence morphed into broader fighting involving armed militias in the area, which left several buildings, including houses, scorched.
Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Twitter on Saturday he had ordered a “high-profile” delegation, including security services, be sent to West Darfur to follow up on the situation.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said that displaced people in the Darfur region say that the withdrawal of the hybrid United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has “created a vacuum”.
This is “especially because the joint force that was created by the government – which includes the police, the military, and the paramilitary rapid force – is a joint force that is not accepted by most of the displaced people”.
But, Morgan said that “inter-communal violence” is not new to Darfur, even when the UNAMID peacekeeping mission was still active and had a mandate to protect civilians.