Infighting among Misseriya tribe kills 150 in West Kordofan
July 3, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Misseriya tribe disclosed that 150 of its members were killed and another 100 injured in fighting that broke out between two of its clans in West Kordofan state.
Newspaper reports said at the time that a dispute erupted between the two parties and referred to an incident last month in which 40 from both sides were killed.
A local official attributed the clashes to the proliferation of arms among tribesmen. He said that the state government sent military reinforcements from the army and police to contain the situation.
Mohammad Omar al-Ansari, a leading Misseriya figure, told the government sponsored Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website on Thursday that clashes between the two clans lasted a full day because of a dispute over land near the oilfields.
He claimed that the conflict took place with the help of some outlaws from the two tribes and some of the South Sudan armed tribesmen, stressing that the Misseriya will sit down with the warring parties to press them to sign a treaty of peaceful coexistence.
This week authorities in West Kordofan and East Darfur announced the deployment of troops to separate areas of Hamar and Ma’alia tribes following renewed fighting between the two ethnic groups which claimed lives of 75 people.
Last May, 28 people were killed in battles between the Hamar and Ma’alia tribes in East Darfur and West Kordofan according to tribal leaders at the time.
The United Nations confirmed that 38 people were killed last December in West Kordofan as a result of clashes between the two groups because of a dispute over the right to pasture.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) , some of the 38,000 displaced people in West Kordofan have fled recent fighting between the Hamar and Ma’alia tribes in North and East Darfur in March and April.
Tribal fighting has become the major source of insecurity in Darfur since the beginning of last year, forcing over 300,000 people to flee their homes.
Last year, Sudan’s president, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, warned against tribal strife in some areas of the country, noting the country is facing challenges that need the cooperation of all of its people.
“The tribal conflicts in a number of Sudan’s areas constitute the biggest threat to the country,” Bashir said when addressing a meeting of the Shura (consultative) Council of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).
Several officials in Darfur including the head of the regional authority, Tijani El-Sissi, also said that tribal violence is among the biggest threats to ongoing efforts to implement a peace document signed by two former rebel groups in the region.
(ST)