The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday said tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s West Darfur province have displaced about 40,000 people, with thousands crossing to neighboring Chad, reported UN News.
The violence began in December between two people, one of whom, an Arab, was stabbed to death. The clashes have led to the death of 54 people and injured dozens. There have been reports of attacks on camps for internally displaced people, and homes being burned.
“Violence between communities in and around El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State, had reportedly killed at least 54 people, injured 60 and displaced 40,000, since 28 December”, OCHA Spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.
Laerke said thousands of people had crossed the border into Chad seeking refuge in villages near the border. He added that those displaced within the province had taken shelter in schools and government buildings.
Andrej Mahecic, the spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR teams had identified at least 3,700 people, including more than 2,000 women and 500 children under-five, who had crossed the border between West Darfur and Chad.
“The conditions were dire, and most refugees were staying out in the open; food and water were urgently needed”, he explained.
The Sudanese government continues to engage in peace talks with rebel groups since October, aiming for peace in the region following the military’s ousting of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April after nearly three decades in power.
The government has already deployed sufficient troops to the region helped stabilize the situation in West Darfur.
Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the Sovereign Council, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and some other top government officials visited the region and expressed their commitment to prosecuting the perpetrators.
