At least 39 others have been injured and 16 shops have been set on fire since violence broke out on Monday over a land dispute between the tribes.
Dozens of families are fleeing violence in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, where clashes between the two tribes continue that have left at least 31 people dead, according to the state’s security commission and other officials. network.
At least 39 others have been injured and dozens of shops burned in the town of Roseires since violence broke out on Monday over a land dispute between the Berti and Hawsa tribes.
Clashes continued into Saturday afternoon despite the deployment of additional troops in the area, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Commission, which monitors violence around the country.
“We need more troops to control the situation,” local official Adel Agar from the city of Al-Roseires told AFP news agency on Saturday.
He also called on mediators to de-escalate tensions that have resulted in many “dead and injured”.
Sudan’s Commission of Doctors said more injured people were taken to hospitals on Saturday, amid a shortage of emergency and life-saving medicine in the province. It called on the authorities in the capital Khartoum to help evacuate the injured for advanced treatment.
Nile Governor Ahmed al-Omda on Friday issued a ban on all gatherings or marches for a month, and a night curfew was imposed on Saturday.
The local government has deployed the paramilitary and military Rapid Support Force (RSF) to bring stability to the region.
Witnesses said clashes resumed Saturday after a brief lull, near the state capital Al-Damazin on Saturday.
“We heard gunfire,” resident Fatima Hamad told AFP from the city of Al-Roseires across the river from Al-Damazin, “and saw smoke rising” from the south.
Al-Damazin resident Ahmed Youssef said that “dozens of families” had crossed the bridge into the city to flee the unrest.
Hospitals make urgent appeals
According to medical sources, an urgent call for blood donations has been launched by hospitals to save the casualties from the unrest.
A medical source from Al-Roseires Hospital told AFP the facility was “out of first aid equipment”.
The source said “additional personnel are needed”, adding that the number of injured is “increasing”.
Violence broke out after the Berti tribe refused Hawsa’s request to set up a “civil body to monitor access to land”, a prominent Hawsa member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
But a senior member of Bertis said the tribe was responding to the “encroachment” of their land by the Hawsas.
The Qissan region and the Blue Nile state in general have long seen unrest, with southern fighters being a thorn in Sudan’s side powerful former president Omar al-Bashirwho was deposed by the military in 2019 after street protests.
Experts say last year’s coupled by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has created a security vacuum that has fueled the resurgence of tribal violence, in a country where deadly clashes frequently erupt over land land, livestock, access to water, and grazing.
In April, tribal clashes killed more than 200 people in war-torn Darfur.
There have been sporadic outbreaks of violence in several parts of Sudan including the eastern and western coastal regions of Darfur, although a nationwide peace agreement signed by several rebel groups in 2020.
The strongest faction of the Sudan-North People’s Liberation Movement, a rebel group active in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, did not sign the deal.
The Sudanese military took power from a civilian-led transitional government in October 2021, causing mass anti-army protests has continued for more than eight months.
