Clashes pitting Arabs against ethnic Africans in Sudan’s turbulent Darfur region have resulted in the deaths of about 100 people in the past week, a reminder of the challenges facing the country as it faces growing economic and political woes.
Violence has surged in Darfur since the military seized power last October, derailing the country’s democratic transition and creating a climate conducive to lawlessness.
There has been no official word from the capital, Khartoum, about the latest violence.
The response by the military and security forces has been slow or inadequate, allowing the fighting in Darfur to continue.
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Sudanese soldiers look at a plane destroyed by the rebels on the North Darfur state capital of Al-Fasher 29 April 2003. Thousands of villagers have reportedly fled their villages since April 11 after fighting between government forces and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Khartoum has refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the Darfur states, blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws," who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad. AFP PHOTO/Salah OMAR (Photo by SALAH OMAR / AFP) -
Members of the southern-based rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) sit in the forest in Sudan's western region of Darfur in April 2004. Fighting in the area that has erupted in February 2003 between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels has claimed at least 10,000 lives and raised the spectre of a devastating humanitarian crisis that could see up to one million die, the UN and international officials have said. The pro-Sudanese government "Janjaweed" militia have been accused of ethnic cleansing against the black population of the Darfur region. AFP -
The village of Khair Wajid is seen after being burnt by the pro-Sudanese government "Janjaweed" militias in the western Darfur region of Sudan in in April 2004. The Arab "Janjaweed" militia have been accused of ethnic cleansing against the black population of the Darfur region. AFP -
Malnourished children are fed at the Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) nutrition centre on June 21, 2004 in the Mornay camp, in western Darfur, Sudan. More than 80,000 displaced people reached this town to try to escape ethnic violence in the Darfur region. After surviving massacres carried out by pro-government militias on their villages, these refugees are now virtual prisoners in the camp as the same militias now control the camp's periphery conducting violent attacks and rapes on villagers who go out looking for food and essential items according to MSF. AFP -
Relatives mourn over the body of one-year-old Ali, who died of malnutrition in a refugee camp in El-Geneina in the Darfour, Sudan on June 21, 2004. AFP -
A rebel of the Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE), fighting Sudanese troops, mans a post on July 28, 2004 in the northern part of the western Sudanese Darfur region. Sudan is prepared to deploy up to 12,000 policemen to secure the war-torn western region of Darfur, should that become necessary, Information Minister Zahawi Ibrahim Malik told AFP on August 3, 2004. AFP -
A Sudanese woman walks in the Internally Displaced Persons camp of Krindig on the outskirts of the town of El-Geneina on September 13, 2004. More than 500,000 Internally Displaced Persons of an estimated one million in Sudan live in encampments in western Darfur. An estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million more uprooted in a campaign against Darfur's black African population, which began in February 2003. AFP -
Internally-displaced Sudanese wait to receive food supplies from from the World Food Programme in Kalma Camp, near Nyala town in Sudan's southern Darfur region on January 10, 2005. AFP -
Freshly displaced Darfuris await the arrival of the UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland in the rebel held town of Gereida in southern Darfur on May 7, 2006. AFP -
Rwandan soldiers from the African Union Mission in Sudan (Amis) patrol between Al-Fasher, the capital of Northern Darfur, and Kuma, a town to the north-east on May 18, 2006. Amis is deployed since 2004 in Darfur to bring back peace to this war-torn region. A peace deal was signed on May 5 between one of the three rebel groups and the government of Khartoum. AFP -
Rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) in Tina, a small village next to Tawila, a town located 70 kms west of al-Fasher, capital of Northern Darfur are pictured on May 20, 2006. This branch of the SLM loyal to Abdulwaheed Mohamed Nur didn't sign the peace deal with Karthoum. They demand more rights, but have been threatened by the UN security council of sanctions if they don't agree to the peace before May 31. AFP -
UN Special Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, left; and Ambassador Boubou Niang of Amis Darfur Peace Agreement Implementation Team (DPAIT) listen to local leaders of an Arab tribe during a meeting at the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNIMIS) headquarters in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, August 10, 2007. The deployment of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force to the western Sudanese region of Darfur will be an unprecedented challenge, the UN official in charge of the mission said today. AFP -
AMIS soldiers carry an injured colleague to a helicopter at Haskanita military group site on September 30, 2007 following an attack by a large, organised group of heavily armed men who overran southern Darfur's Haskanita camp. AFP -
An Amis military observer , left, and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) members survey the burnt-out marketplace in Muhajariya town in southern Darfur, on October 10, 2007, following violent clashes. The town, which is a stronghold of the SLA Minni Minnawi faction, the only rebel group to sign the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, experienced heavy fighting October 9 in what the SLA said was a Sudanese government-backed attack in which more than 50 people died. The clashes left many homes burnt to the ground and shops destroyed and looted. AFP -
Black smoke billows from burning cars as Sudanese people walk along the streets in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman, following fighting between Darfurian rebels and Sudanese government forces, on May 11, 2008. Sudan today severed diplomatic ties with Chad, accusing Ndjamena of backing a first Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum, and slapped a multi-million dollar price on the head of the alleged mastermind. AFP -
Soldiers and civilian staff serving with the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) pay their respects during a funeral ceremony for seven peacekeepers who were killed in an ambush by armed gunmen while returning from patrol in the Northern Darfur State on July 8, 2008. AFP -
Sudanese refugee children press up against a fence in Djabal refugee camp near Goz Beida southern Chad on March 15, 2009. United Nations forces took over command from European Union peacekeepers to protect refugees and displaced people in Chad and the Central African Republic. AFP -
UNAMID shows a peacekeeper from the Nepalese Special Forces patrols in Jawa village, in East Jebel Marra (South Darfur) on March 18, 2011 as most of the population fled some days ago due to the clashes. AFP -
Attahi Mohammed Sigit, the sheikh of Sigili village in North Darfur, shows to UNAMID peacekeepers the damages in the village on November 6, 2012, days after an attack by a local militia during which his 18-year-old son was killed. Militia in Sudan's North Darfur state attacked the village and killed 13 people, a local source told AFP on November 3, adding to an upsurge of deadly violence in the area. AFP -
A Sudanese woman carries humanitarian supplies distributed by UN agencies at the new settlement in the Zam Zam camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), in North Darfur in May 2013. Most of the new IDPs arrived recently from Labado and Muhajeria, East Darfur, as a result of clashes between the Sudan Liberation Army - Mini Minawi and the Government of Sudan. AFP -
A destroyed car is seen in Malakal, South Sudan, on March 4, 2014. AFP -
Members of UNAMID patrol the area near the city of Nyala in Sudan's Darfur on January 12, 2015. AFP -
A Sudanese boy rides a donkey past a UNAMID armoured vehicle in the war-torn town of Golo in the thickly forested mountainous area of Jebel Marra in central Darfur on June 19, 2017. The town was a former rebel bastion which was recently captured by Sudanese government forces. AFP -
A picture shows the aftermath of violence in the Sudanese village of al-Twail Saadoun, 85 kilometres south of Nyala town, the capital of South Darfur, on February 2, 2021. AFP -
Residents return to the South Darfur village of Hamada, north of the region's capital town Nyala, on February 3, 2021, as Darfuris who have long been displaced are returning to their villages after the October peace deal between Sudan's transitional government and rebel groups. AFP
The latest violence was the result of a land dispute between Arab and African tribes in the town of Kulbus in West Darfur province, according to Toby Harward of the UN refugee agency in Sudan.
In a series of tweets, Mr Harward said Arab militiamen attacked villages in the area, forcing thousands of people to flee.
Residents said that at least 62 of the victims were burnt after the militiamen torched more than 20 villages in reprisal.
Local official Abbas Mustafa said authorities sent more troops to the area, where violence is believed to have displaced about 5,000 families.
Mr Harward called in his tweets for neutral joint forces to provide protection for civilians in the area. “If there is no intervention or mediation, & violence is allowed to continue, farmers will not be able to cultivate & the agricultural season will fail,” he wrote.
In April, clashes caused the deaths of more than 200 people. The Sudanese military said at the time it sent a brigade to the province.
However, the violence has raised questions over whether the military is capable of restoring law and order in Darfur, where the UN Security Council ended its peacekeeping mission in 2020.
In recent months, aid workers have called on the UN to send peacekeepers back.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003, when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in the capital Khartoum of discrimination.
The government of ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir was accused of retaliating by arming nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing militias known as the Janjaweed on civilians there.
Al Bashir, who has been in prison in Khartoum since he was removed from office in 2019, was charged more than a decade ago by the International Criminal Court with genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
