News Article by REUTERS posted on August 21, 2008 at 23:26:57: EST (-5 GMT)
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Up to 70 killed in Darfur tribal clashes KHARTOUM, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Up to 70 Arab tribesmen were killed on Wednesday in armed clashes over water and grazing land in South Darfur, a senior member of one the groups involved said on Thursday. The fierce fighting between the nomadic Rizeigat and Misseriya tribes was also fuelled by bad blood over past killings and the ready supply of small arms in the region, tribal leaders told Reuters. Sadig Babo Nimir, brother of the leader of the Misseriya, said the fighting broke out late Wednesday morning in the remote Abu Jabra area, close to the region's border with southern Kordofan. "Everyone has Kalashnikovs there, because of the impact of the fighting in Darfur and the south," said Nimir, referring to Sudan's north-south civil war that ended in 2005. "Because of that, a small clash can build up very quickly." Nimir said fellow clan members on the scene told him the Rizeigat started the fighting on Wednesday by attacking a Misseriya camp, partly in revenge for fighting over resources earlier in the year. Nimir, who is based in Khartoum, said he had reports 55 people died in the clash, 38 of them Rizeigat and 17 Misseriya, he added. But Mohamed Isa Aliow, a senior member of the Rizeigat, told Reuters at least 67 had been killed in total, adding that he had received reports that the Misseriya had started the fighting. Aliow, also based in the capital, said elders had long warned the Sudanese government that tensions were building up between groups from both tribes. "But they have done nothing," he told Reuters. "There are still no soldiers, no government troops in the area. There are many weapons there and younger men are free to take the law into their own hands." Nimir said he hoped senior members of both tribes would meet in the next few days to find a resolution. Aliow said he would travel to the region on Friday to speak to the Rizeigat on the ground before making arrangements for reconciliation talks. The clashes were not directly linked to the five-year conflict in Darfur that international experts say has killed 200,000 and driven more than 2.5 million people from their homes. But U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and experts on the region have long said that competition for scarce water resources in Darfur, against a background of global warming, is one of the root causes of the conflict.
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