Twelve people killed in clash in southern Chad

N’DJAMENA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Twelve people were killed when rival mobs of residents clashed in the southern Chadian town of Bebidja, burning down a large part of one neighbourhood, the defence minister said on Sunday.

A Sudanese girl peeks over the wall of her hut in the Internally Displaced Persons(IDP) camp of Krinding, on the outskirts of the western town of El-Geneina, near the border with Chad.

The cause of the Saturday evening violence was unclear, but residents said it pitted a group who originally inhabited the town against others they considered outsiders.

“There were 10 bodies which were identified, and two which were not identified, and 15 wounded,” Defence Minister Emmanuel Nadingar told Reuters.

“It appears that a simple dispute got out of hand. We are in the process of making enquiries to find out the real cause of the confrontation,” Nadingar said.

The Collective of Associations for the Defense of Human Rights, an umbrella body of activists’ groups, urged the government to collect illegal weapons in Chad, an impoverished country which borders zones plagued by conflict and banditry inlcuding Sudan’s western Darfur region.

“The conflict shows on one hand the eternal problem of peaceful coexistence by different communities, and on the other hand, the question of illegal weapons of war held by civilians,” the organisation said in a statement.