65 Dead, 150 Injured in Tribal Clashes in Sudan’s Blue Nile Province

Clashes between the Hawsa and Berti tribes in Sudan’s Blue Nile province have resulted in the deaths of at least 65 people and injury of around 150 in recent days, said Gamal Nasser al-Sayed, the province’s health minister, on Sunday. Most of the dead were young men who were shot or stabbed, he said.

Al-Sayed called on the authorities in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, to airlift 15 people who were seriously injured to hospitals where they’d have access to more advanced equipment and lifesaving medicine than was unavailable in the Blue Nile region.

The clashes erupted last week after the Berti tribe rejected a Hawsa request to create a “civil authority to supervise access to land,” a prominent Hawsa member told the AFP news agency. Other sources say the violence broke out last week after the killing of a farmer in the region.

Since then, thousands of people have fled their homes in fear. Authorities deployed the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to stabilize the situation. They imposed a nightly curfew and banned gatherings in the towns of Roseires and Damazin.

Meanwhile, in Khartoum, Sudanese police fired tear gas Sunday in an attempt to disperse hundreds of pro-democracy protesters who were demonstrating against the rule of coup leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.