Almost 250 people killed in 2 days of clashes between Arab tribes in western Sudan

Fighting between rival Arab tribes in western Sudan's oil-rich Kordofan region killed almost 250 people over two days earlier this week, including 75 policemen, Sudan's interior minister said.

Tribal clashes over cattle grazing and water rights is common across Sudan, but the violence has grown worse over the years with the number of arms left over from the two-decade long civil war between the north and the south that ended in 2005.


The Messariah and Rezeigat tribes that clashed Tuesday and Wednesday straddle the border region between southern Kordofan and neighboring Darfur, where a separate conflict that has claimed 300,000 lives has raged for more than six years.

Interior Minister Hamed Ibrahim told the Cabinet on Thursday that in addition to the police, 169 tribesman were killed in the fighting, including 89 from the Messariah and 80 from the Rezeigat. Calm has now returned to the area, he was quoted as saying by the state news agency.

A previous round of fighting last year between the two tribes left over 70 from both sides dead, Messariah chief Babou Nimr Mukhtar told The Associated Press.


Mukhtar said fighting began Tuesday when 2,000 Rezeigat gunmen on horseback and in trucks attacked his tribe. Police were deployed to the area to prevent the fighting but were attacked by the Rezeigat, he said.

"Calm is restored. But there is no guarantee it will last," said Mukhtar. He stressed that tribal chiefs, not security forces, were the only ones who could end the rivalry.

Mukhtar said 109 people from his tribe were killed in the fighting, 20 more than the government indicated. The differences could not immediately be reconciled, and it was unclear if all the tribesman killed were gunmen.

These clashes are separate from the war in Darfur between mostly ethnic African rebels and government forces and allied Arab militias. Many fear the Darfur conflict could spill over into neighboring Kordofan, exacerbating already rising violence.

Separate tribal clashes in the country's south over the last three months claimed the lives of some 900 people, mostly women and children.

Hamid, the interior minister, said the government was investigating the cause of this week's fighting and would bring the instigators to trial.

Kouider Zerrouk, a spokesman for the U.N. in Sudan, called the clashes "very alarming" and said the organization was also investigating.

Fighting in southern Kordofan is particularly concerning because it is contains some of Sudan's largest oil resources and its borders are disputed by northern and southern officials in the government.