The number of victims of the armed conflicts between Sudan’s Hausa and Berta tribes had risen to 220, a senior health official said Sunday, marking one the deadliest bouts of tribal violence in recent years.
On Friday, local authorities in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile State declared a one-month state of emergency after many were killed in a tribal conflict that broke out on Wednesday.
Footage from the scene, which corresponded to Associated Press reporting, showed burned houses and charred bodies. Others showed women and children fleeing on foot.
Many houses were burned down in the fighting, which displaced some 7,000 people to the city of Rusyaris. Others fled to neighboring provinces, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Authorities ordered a nighttime curfew in Wad el-Mahi and deployed troops to the area. They also established a fact-finding committee to investigate the clashes, according to the state-run SUNA news agency.
The fighting between the two groups first erupted in mid-July, killing at least 149 people as of earlier October. It triggered violent protests and stoked tensions between the two tribes in Blue Nile and other provinces.
(With input from agencies)
