33 dead in Sudan Tribal Clashes Near Ethiopia Border
Dozens of families were fleeing violence in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, where ongoing clashes between two tribes have killed at least 33 people, authorities said Saturday.
At least 108 others have been wounded, according to a health ministry statement, and 16 shops torched since the violence broke out on July 11 over a land dispute between the Berti and Hawsa tribes.
“We need more troops to control the situation,” local official Adel Agar from the city of Al-Roseires told AFP on Saturday.
According to him, many people were seeking refuge in police stations and the unrest had resulted in many “dead and wounded.”
Agar did not give a toll breakdown but said mediators were urgently needed to de-escalate the violence.
Soldiers were deployed to contain the unrest and a night curfew has been imposed by the authorities starting Saturday.
Blue Nile Governor Ahmed al-Omda issued an order on Friday prohibiting any gatherings or marches for one month.
The violence broke out after the Berti tribe rejected a Hawsa request to create a “civil authority to supervise access to land,” a prominent Hawsa member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
But a senior member of the Bertis said the tribe was responding to a “violation” of its lands by the Hawsas.
Clashes resumed on Saturday after a brief lull, close to the state capital Al-Damazin, witnesses said.
“We heard gunshots… and saw smoke rising,” resident Fatima Hamad told AFP Saturday from Al-Roseires, across the river from Al-Damazin.
Ahmed Youssef, a resident of the state capital, said “dozens of families” crossed the bridge into the city to flee the unrest.
