Dozens killed in Sudan tribal clashes

By Omer Erdem and Behram Abdelmunim

KHARTOUM (AA) – Dozens of people were killed on Saturday in tribal clashes in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

Eyewitnesses reported that dozens of people lost their lives in the conflict between the Arab Beni Halba and African Masalit tribes in West Darfur province, bordering Chad.

Ethnic violence escalated in the region with the civil war that broke out in mid-April between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Three women lost their lives and six others were injured when a shell hit a house in Nyala, the capital of the state of South Darfur, health sources in the region told Anadolu.

Sudan has seen several bouts of tribal violence in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile regions in recent months amid a deep political crisis in the country since the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government, a move decried by political forces as a "military coup."

Intense clashes have been ongoing for over 100 days between the army and the RSF, particularly in strategic areas around the capital and in the western part of the country.

During the conflict, which has lasted for more than 100 days, over 3,000 people have lost their lives, tens of thousands have been injured, and approximately 4 million people have been displaced, with most of the violence concentrated around the capital.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar