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Ethnic or tribal disputes over land, and water and grazing rights, often break out in Sudan’s far-flung regions, fanned in some areas by drought and desertification
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“I saw 20 bodies and other wounded people taken to the hospital and tensions continued into Friday morning”
At least 20 people have died in tribal clashes in the western Kordofan region of Sudan since Thursday when members of the Arab Hamar and Misseriya tribes fought with each other near the town of Al-Nahoud, some 560 kilometers southwest of Khartoum.
“I saw 20 bodies and other wounded people taken to the hospital and tensions continued into Friday morning,” a witness Hamdan Mohammed told AFP.
Another witness, Ahmed Adam, said the violence was triggered by “a dispute over a plot of agricultural land.”
Ethnic or tribal disputes over land, and water and grazing rights, often break out in Sudan’s far-flung regions, fanned in some areas by drought and desertification.
They became more deadly during the three-decade rule of president Omar Bashir who armed some Arab tribes to fight ethnic minority rebels demanding an end to marginalization by his Arab-dominated regime.
The transitional government which took power after his ouster in April 2019 has signed peace agreements with most of Sudan’s remaining rebel groups but many of the tribes are still heavily armed.
Last month, at least 36 people were killed in clashes in South Darfur state between members of the Arab Al-Taisha tribe and the Fallata ethnic group.