Heavy Fighting in West Sudan Witnesses 27 Killed in Ethnic Clashes

By AFP

Jun 08, 2022 05:37 PM

Sudanese people take the streets after the 'military coup' attempt in Khartoum, Sudan on October 25, 2021. Photo: CFP

Heavy fighting in Sudan's west and south has killed at least 27 people and left dozens wounded, residents said Tuesday, with the United Nations envoy saying he was "deeply concerned."

In separate incidents, clashes broke out in the restive Darfur region in a bitter land dispute, leaving 16 dead, as well as in South Kordofan state, where 11 people died after an argument between two people reportedly escalated into wider gun battles.

The latest violence comes as Sudan grapples with the fallout from a coup in October 2021 led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

In West Darfur, the arid region of Sudan bordering Chad, fighting took place near Kolbus, some 160 kilometers from the state capital El Geneina. Attackers set fire to villages leaving them burned to the ground.

It is the latest in several rounds of clashes pitting largely settled farmers against semi-nomadic Arab pastoralist groups.

"Fighting erupted over a land dispute between member of an Arab tribe and a farmer from a non-Arab one," said a leader from the non-Arab Gimir people. 

"The clashes killed eight people from Gimir, and three villages were burned," he said.

A leader from the Arab Rizeigat community said fighting began over a dispute over land.

"Eight of our people were killed," he said. "Clashes are ongoing."

In South Kordofan, fighting erupted between rival Arab groups - the Hawazma and Kenana groups - near Abu Jebeiha.

AFP