Darfur: 24 dead in tribal clashes

The Sudanese government has announced that it will take the first step towards the creation of a new state in the country's western region of Darfur, which is bordered by Chad and the Central African Republic, by the end of the year.

"There have been 24 deaths since late Saturday on both sides," said Mohammed Hussein Timane, a member of the local council of Foro Baranga, a town in West Darfur state, 185 km from the capital, El-Geneina.

By Monday evening, local authorities had declared a nightly curfew and a state of emergency for one month throughout the state.

Calm has since returned but many security forces are still deployed, said Timane.

The UN has reported 50 houses burned down in Foro Baranga and "about 4,000 families, or 20,000 people, displaced.

Darfur is often the scene of tribal violence, among other things caused by territorial disputes and difficulties in accessing water.

A 2003 civil war between the regime of Omar al-Bashir, which falls in 2019, and insurgents from ethnic minorities left an estimated 300,000 people dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

Experts say tribal conflicts have exploded in Sudan due to the security vacuum created by the coup led by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhane in October 2021, sounding the death knell for the fragile transition that began after Bashir's removal.

Tribal conflicts killed more than 900 people, injured 1,000 and displaced nearly 300,000 in 2022, according to the UN.