53 killed in clashes between SLA-Minawi, Darfur tribal forces
March 14, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Fifty-three people were killed and 24 others injured during renewed clashes between the Maaliyah tribe and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by Senior Presidential Assistant Minni Arkoi Minawi.
Both sides blamed each other for the renewed violence which has occurred five times in the last seven months. Head of the Maaliyah shura council Al-Sheikh Mirdas told Al-Sahafah that a SLM force on 20 land cruisers attacked the main grazing area used by his tribe’s herders in the Matorit area and that his tribe had confronted them.
The clashes occurred in the Matorit area, 163 km east of Nyala the capital of South Darfur State.
He pointed out that the clashes had resulted in the death of 53 people from both sides, ten from the Maaliyah and 43 from the SLM while 24 were injured. He said four of those injured were from his tribe and had been taken to Al-Diayn hospital for treatment.
Mirdas accused the SLM-Minawi of striving to impose a new reality and, according to him, change the demography of the area to the advantage of ethnic groups that had recently immigrated to the region. He further warned that clashes would break out in nearby Kilaykal if the situation was not contained.
In this regard, a senior SLM source, who requested anonymity, admitted that a number SLM soldiers had died or been injured in these incidents but would not give details. Speaking from Muhajriyah, one of the movement’s strongholds near the scene of the clashes, he said that a group, described as Janjaweed, had attacked areas under SLM control.
He said this had led to the death and injuring of a number of SLM soldiers and the burning of the villages of Um Sautah, Um Hani and Al-Matorit and that 10,000 people had fled in the direction of Al-Diayn as a result of the fighting.
(ST)