Dozens killed in latest Darfur tribal clash

July 31, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — At least 34 people have been killed in latest clashes between rival Arab tribes in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, a tribal chief said on Tuesday.

“These clashes, coming just after the ones from last week, killed 34 and wounded 38 of our people,” Mohammed Hammad Jalabi, chief of the Torjum tribe, told AFP by telephone from the provincial capital of Nyala.

He said that the rival Rzigat Aballa tribe, with which the Torjam have been clashing for months, attacked his tribal lands west of Nyala from four directions and fighting lasted much of the day before the army intervened.

There were no estimates to the number of Aballa dead.

On July 25, Sudanese papers reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes when Aballa men fell on a band of Torjum, killing nine.

The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat tribesmen killed 62 Torjam in their villages.

Darfur came to world attention in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government to protest at their region’s marginalisation.

The government combated the rebellion with camel-riding Janjaweed militia, many from the Rzigat Aballa tribe, who have since been accused of atrocities and genocide.

About 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict, according to UN estimates. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.

(AFP)