83 people killed in Sudan's Darfur clashes
Jan 17, 2021
Darfur [Sudan], January 18 : At least 83 people have been killed in the tribal clashes in Sudan's Darfur, said the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) on Saturday, just after two weeks since a long-running peacekeeping mission ended operations.
"The death toll from the bloody events taking place in the city of al-Geneina ... has increased since Saturday morning ... [to] 84," Al Jazeera quoted CCSD, a local branch of the country's doctors' union, as saying in a statement on Twitter.
According to the statement, 160 people, including some armed force personnel, sustained injuries in the clashes.
The Saturday's clashes initially pitted the Massalit tribe against Arab nomads in al-Geneina, about two weeks after the United Nations and African Union ended a 13-year peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Al Jazeera reported.
During the violence, several buildings including houses were scorched.
Responding to the incident, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a tweet that he has ordered a "high-profile" delegation, including security services, to visit West Darfur.
The displaced people in Darfur said that the withdrawal of the hybrid United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has "created a vacuum", Al Jazeera reported.
The UNAMID had officially ended its operations on December 31 last year and plans to have a phased withdrawal of its 8,000 both armed and civilians within six months.
Since April 2019 with the overthrow of longtime President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan has been undergoing a rocky political transition.
While the transitional government comprising of generals and civilian leaders has urged the rebel groups to bring in peace, two groups including the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by Abdelwahid Nour has refused to concede to the peace deal, which is believed to maintain considerable support in Darfur, Al Jazeera said.
