Gossip: Inter-ethnic fighting leads to bloodshed in Darfur

At least 94 people were killed on Friday and Saturday as rival tribes fought in southwestern Darfur, near the Chadian border, despite the peace agreement they signed on July 3.


Fighting in the past two days between rival tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region has killed 94 people, despite a peace deal between them, a tribal leader said on Saturday.

“Since yesterday there has been a clash between us and the Salamat after they tried to attack us,” Ahmed Khiri, who described himself as a leader of fighters from the Misseriya tribe, told AFP.

“We lost eight of our men and killed 86 from the other side.”

The African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) says inter-ethnic fighting has been the major source of violence in the far-west region this year, leading to the displacement of an estimated 300,000 people in the first five months alone.

That is more than in the previous two years combined.

The latest fighting occurred in southwestern Darfur’s Umm Dukhun area, near the Chadian border.

“There is a committee trying to bury the bodies,” said Khiri, who professed to be speaking from the battlefield.

Salamat leaders could not be immediately reached.

Fighting between Misseriya and Salamat in April led 50,000 to flee into Chad, the United Nations said.

On July 3 the two tribes signed a peace agreement under which they were to pay compensation to each other, and refugees would return.