Tribal clash in Sudan’s west kills at least 70

KHARTOUM, July 7 (Reuters) – Fighting between Arab and African tribes has killed at least 70 people and displaced thousands more this week in the Darfur region of western Sudan, a member of parliament for the area said on Wednesday.

Khalil Ahmed Abdullah told Reuters the clashes had escalated from a dispute between individuals to a tribal conflict which had displaced 35,000 people from an area in the south of Darfur over the past four days.

“Only 14,000 of them have been accounted for. We don’t know where the others are,” Abdullah said in Khartoum.

Abdullah said the clashes did not involve Darfur rebels and Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who the rebels say have conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the area with government backing. Khartoum denies the accusation.

Sudanese security forces had brought fighting under control in one of four areas of violence, 76 km (47 miles) southeast of Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur state, Abdullah said.

Leaders from the Arab Rizeigat tribe and African Burgo tribe had arrived to mediate.

A U.N. official in Sudan was not able to verify the number of dead or displaced. “The last that we heard from there was that the situation had calmed down,” the official said.

A U.N. security team was assessing whether it was necessary to withdraw U.N. staff from the area, the official added.