Darfur Arabs clash, at least 100 killed this week

August 2, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — More than 100 people have been killed in clashes between Arab tribes over land and scarce resources in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region this week, an official and a tribal leader said on Thursday.

Terjem tribal leader Babikir Elias blamed a rival tribe, the Rezeigat, for the majority of the killing which took place over the past week in South Darfur state.

“A group of heavily armed Rezeigat Abala attacked the Terjem on Tuesday in an area called Gawaya in South Darfur and killed 51 people, including old men, women and children,” Elias told Reuters.

The Terjem were at a funeral mourning the deaths of 65 of their tribesmen who died in clashes, also with the Rezeigat, earlier in the week in Bulbul, near Nyala, he said.

“There are conflicting reports on the total numbers of casualties, but most reports indicate tens (dozens) of deaths and injuries,” the United Nations said in a bulletin on Tuesday.

“Nearly all the victims were from the Terjem tribe,” Abdul Rahman al-Zein, the minister of labour in the South Darfur government, told Reuters from Nyala, the state capital.

Elias said the Rezeigat used assault rifles and machineguns mounted on pick up vehicles in the attack, adding that Terjem men responded and a gunfight ensued that lasted several hours.

“The authorities found the bodies of three Rezeigat tribesmen,” said Zein.

The clashes came amid an escalation of hostilities between the two tribes, who have a history of conflict. They have signed reconciliation agreements, which Zein helped broker, but which have never fully taken hold.

The Terjem accuse the Rezeigat of trying to encroach on their land and displace them with some help from the government.

Fighting over land and resources has been going on in Darfur for decades, before a revolt broke out in early 2003.

But more than four years of conflict between mostly non-Arab rebels and government forces has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.

Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.

(Reuters)