Sudanese authorities on Wednesday said the recent ethnic clashes in a deadly land dispute in the country’s Blue Nile state have killed 105 people and wounded 291, reported The Nigerian Tribune.
The fighting between members of the Berti and Hausa ethnic groups broke out in the southern state on the borders with Ethiopia and South Sudan on July 11. These clashes usually erupt over access to water and land, vital for farmers and herders.
“The situation is now calm,” state health minister Jamal Nasser told AFP in a telephonic conversation.
The Sudanese minister added that the deployment of the army in the area had eased the fighting since Saturday, but there was a big challenge to settle those displaced.
According to the United Nations, more than 17,000 people have fled their homes from the fighting, with 14,000 taking shelter in three schools in al-Damazin.
Notably, the Blue Nile violence has prompted mass protests in cities across Sudan, two of which imposed curfews earlier this week.
Sudan’s former ruling coalition, the Freedom and Change Declaration Forces (FNDF), on Wednesday announced that they will form a broad front against the tribal clashes that have led to the death and injury of dozens of Sudanese and the hate speech behind them.
The leader of the FNDP group announced that they will organise demonstrations on July 24 in Khartoum and many cities under the name of “One Homeland Sudan” to protest the violence between tribes.
The announcement was made shortly after a massive protest in Khartoum when police fired tear gas grenades at hundreds of demonstrators who were holding up banners saying “No to the killing of Hausas. The protesters called for an end to what they called the oppression of the Hausa people.
Sudan is in the grip of an economic and political crisis that has worsened since army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power last year and a transitional government was removed.
