Death toll from tribal clashes in Sudan's Darfur rises

Clashes between Arab and non-Arab groups in Sudan's Darfur region have left at least 24 people dead, dozens of homes burned, and thousands displaced, an official said.

The latest violence in Sudan's westernmost region near Chad erupted between members of Arab tribes and the Masalit non-Arab group in the town of Foro Baranga, about 185 kilometres from Geneina the capital of West Darfur state.

"The death toll has reached around 24 people on both sides," Mohammed Hussein Teeman, of the Foro Baranga community council, said on Wednesday.

He said the fighting broke out on Saturday.

The violence prompted Sudanese authorities to declare a night curfew and a month-long state of emergency across West Darfur.

Security forces have been dispatched over the past days and the situation had calmed by Wednesday, he said.

About 50 homes were burned in the Foro Baranga area, "leading to the displacement of an estimated 4,000 families [about 20,000 people]," according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

READ MORE: Violence in Sudan's volatile Darfur leaves over a dozen dead

Civil war and coup 

Ethnic clashes often break out in Darfur, a vast region the size of France which was ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003.

That conflict pitted ethnic minority rebels against the government of then-president Omar al Bashir.

Around 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

Experts have said tribal conflicts increased in Sudan after the 2020 end of a UN-African Union peacekeeping mission, and in a security vacuum following the 2021 coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan.

Throughout Sudan last year, such conflicts killed around 900 people and displaced almost 300,000, UN said.
READ MORE: Tribal clashes kill at least 12 people in Sudan's Darfur