DEATH TOLL FROM TRIBAL CLASHES IN SUDAN’S SOUTH RISES TO 60

Sun 17 July 2022:

Tribal clashes in Sudan‘s southern Blue Nile state, on the border with Ethiopia, have killed 60 and wounded 163 people since erupting nearly a week ago, the state’s health minister said.

“Thirteen of the wounded are in a serious condition and will be transferred to hospitals in Khartoum,” Jamal Nasser told AFP by phone from the state capital Al-Damazin. The clashes first erupted last Monday.

Authorities have deployed the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — or RSF — to bring stability to the region. They also imposed a nightly curfew from Saturday night and banned gatherings in the towns of Roseires and Al-Damazin, the state capital, where the clashes took place.

Blue Nile Governor Ahmed al-Omda had on Friday issued an order prohibiting any gatherings or marches for one month.

United Nations Special Representative to Sudan Volker Perthes has called on all sides to exercise restraint.

Inter-communal violence and the loss of life in Sudan’s Blue Nile region is saddening and deeply concerning. I urge the local communities to exercise restraint, refrain from retaliation and work with local and regional authorities for concrete steps towards peaceful co-existence.

— Volker Perthes (@volkerperthes) July 16, 2022

The violence came after the Birta tribe rejected a Hausa request to create a “civil authority to supervise access to land”, a prominent Hausa member had told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But a senior Birta member had said the tribe was responding to a “violation” of its lands by the Hausa.

The Qissan region and Blue Nile state more generally have long seen unrest, with southern fighters a thorn in the side of Sudan’s former strongman president Omar al-Bashir, who was deposed by the army in 2019 following street protests.

Pro-democracy demonstrators accuse Sudan’s military leadership and ex-rebel leaders who signed a 2020 peace deal of exacerbating ethnic tensions in Blue Nile state for personal gain.

On Sunday, police fired tear gas in Sudan’s capital Khartoum against hundreds of anti-coup protesters who also called attention to the deadly clashes in the country’s south.

The capital has been the scene of near-weekly protests since al-Burhan’s power grab derailed a transition to civilian rule.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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