Arab and non-Arab tribes clashed in Sudan's restive western Darfur region over the weekend, leaving behind at least 50 dead with more than 130 injured, a local doctors' committee said Monday, adding to the list of incidents in the troubled region since the signing of a peace agreement late last year and the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers.
The violence between the Arab Rizeigat tribe and the Masalit in Genena, the provincial capital of West Darfur province, followed the death of two people from the Masalit, said Salah Saleh, a physician and former medical director at the city’s main hospital.
The circumstances of their death were not immediately known, he said, adding that the violence then extended to other neighborhoods of the city, reported The Associated Press (AP).
The Sudanese doctors’ committee in West Darfur says at least 132 people were wounded in the clashes, which continued on Monday. It said armed men also opened fire on an ambulance late Sunday, wounding three health care workers. A spokesperson for the government was not immediately available for comment.
"On Monday, we woke up to the sound of gunfire... clashes are still ongoing and have spread to the western suburbs of the town (Geneina)," Abdelrahman Ahmed, an eyewitness, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Adam Regal, a spokesperson for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said a shell hit a camp for displaced people in Geneina on Monday, causing a fire that burned several houses. He shared footage showing flames and thick clouds of black smoke. "The situation is very difficult and grave," he said.
The clashes pose a challenge to efforts by Sudan’s transitional government to end decadeslong rebellions in areas like Darfur. Earlier this year, tribal violence in West Darfur and South Darfur provinces killed around 470 people.
It also displaced more than 120,000 people, mostly women and children, including at least 4,300 who crossed into neighboring Chad, according to the U.N. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civilian government now rules the country.