Sudan's tribal violence spreads as death toll rises

Members of the large Hausa tribe riot in Kassala and Wad Madani

People assist others climbing a ladder evacuating a burning building in the wake of clashes in Sudan's eastern city of Kassala, close to the border with Eritrea (Photo by AFP)

Tribal violence in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state has spread to other parts of the country, threatening to add a disastrous layer to the country’s deepening political and economic woes.

The violence in Blue Nile, which began a week ago, has killed 79 people and injured more than 200, the Health Ministry in Khartoum says.

Authorities there on Friday imposed a night-time curfew and a ban on public gatherings.

Police and troop reinforcements have arrived in the state to maintain order.

The clashes between Blue Nile’s Berti and Hausa tribes followed the rejection by the Bertis of a request to create a "civil authority to supervise access to land", say reports on the cause of the violence.

But a senior member of the Bertis said the violence erupted when the tribe responded to a "violation" of its lands by the Hausas.

On Monday, the violence spread to other cities outside Blue Nile, with the Hausas setting up barricades and attacking government buildings.

A ransacked building after rioting by members of the Hausa tribe in Sudan's eastern city of Kassala, close to the border with Eritrea, on July 18. AFP

In the eastern city of Kassala, the government banned public gatherings after several thousand Hausa people "set government buildings and shops on fire", witnesses said.

Authorities there said three people were killed and 15 injured in the violence.

In the city of Wad Madani south of Khartoum, hundreds of Hausa people put up stone barricades and burned tyres on a main Nile bridge, witnesses said.

Pro-democracy activists and experts say a military coup led by army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan last October has created a security vacuum that has brought about a resurgence in tribal violence, in a country where deadly clashes regularly erupt over land, livestock, access to water and grazing.

They also suspect that Sudan's military and former rebel leaders who signed a 2020 peace deal of exacerbating ethnic tension in Blue Nile for personal gain.

The violence in Blue Nile follows a wave of tribal clashes in the restive Darfur region that killed hundreds, injured thousands and displaced tens of thousands.

The Hausas are one of Africa’s largest ethnic groups, with tens of millions of members living in several countries.

There are three million Hausas in Sudan, most of whom are Muslims who speak their own native language besides Arabic.

They mostly live off agriculture in Darfur, Al Jazeera state in central Sudan and in the eastern states of Kassala, Gedaref, Sennar and Blue Nile.

Sudan has since the coup been embroiled in a political crisis, with its delicate democratic transition in tatters and its economy devastated by high energy prices, food shortages and the suspension by the West of billions of dollars’ worth of in aid and debt forgiveness.

The country has also been steadily slipping back into the pariah status it suffered for most of the 29 years former dictator Omar Al Bashir was in power.

Beside decrying the derailment of the democratic transition, the West has repeatedly protested against the killing of unarmed, anti-military protesters by security forces since October.

At least 114 protesters have been killed and about 6,000 injured since the coup.