Day: April 4, 2022

KHARTOUM, Heavy clashes between rival groups in Sudan’s Darfur have left some 45 people killed, officials said, as tribal leaders reported that fighting persisted in the latest ethnic violence.

Fresh fighting broke out on Tuesday between the ethnic Africa Fallata people and an Arab tribe in villages outside Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, witnesses said.

“Fifteen people were killed in the fighting between the Fallata and Rizeigat tribes on Tuesday and 30 were killed on Wednesday,” the security committee of South Darfur state, a local government body, said in a statement.

Women and children were among those killed in the fighting, it added.

Tribal leaders from Fallata and the Rizeigat said separately that the fightings have continued.

A medical source also said that around 20 wounded, some critically, were taken to nearby hospitals.

One resident of South Darfur, Mohamed al-Fatteh, said fighting erupted after a member of the Arab tribe was killed.

Sudan’s western restive Darfur region was ravaged by a bitter a civil war that erupted in 2003.

The conflict pitted ethnic minority rebels who complained of discrimination against the Arab-dominated government of then-president Omar al-Bashir.

Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, who were blamed for atrocities including murder, rape, looting and burning villages.

The scorched-earth campaign left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million, according to the United Nations.

The main conflict has subsided over the years, but the region remains awash with weapons and deadly clashes often erupt over access to pasture or water.

Last month, clashes broke out among herders and farmers in the rugged mountainous region of Jebel Moon in West Darfur, leaving at least 35 people killed.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of houses torched in several bouts of violence in Jebel Moon, as well as elsewhere in Darfur in recent months, the United Nations and medics say.

The violence has reflected a broader security breakdown in Darfur following last year’s military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, that derailed a transition to full civilian rule.

Source: Nam News Network

Cairo, Apr More than 90 people in an overcrowded boat drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, a prominent humanitarian group said, in the latest tragedy involving migrants departing from North Africa to seek a better life in Europe.

Doctors Without Borders said the migrants were on a vessel that left Libya last week. It was unclear exactly when the boat ran into trouble, said Juan Matias Gil, the group’s head of mission, AP reports.

The group, also known by its French acronym MSF, said an oil tanker rescued four migrants early Saturday in international waters. The survivors reported that they were on the boat along with about 100 other migrants, it said.

MSF said the tanker did not respond to its calls not to return the migrants to Libya, where “they will almost certainly face detention, abuse and ill-treatment.”

The group urged Italy and Malta to “assign a place of safety for the survivors before it is too late.” It also called for The European Union border protection agency Frontex and other EU agencies to reveal the details of the incident.

Migrants regularly attempt to cross the Mediterranean from the North African nation in a desperate attempt to reach European shores. The country has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the oil-rich country’s lengthy borders with six nations. The migrants are then typically packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and set off on risky sea voyages.

Around 300 migrants died or were presumed dead along the Central Mediterranean route between Jan. 1 and March 28, according to International Organization for Migration. About 3,100 were intercepted and taken back to Libya.

Once back in Libya, the migrants are typically taken to government-run detention centers rife with abuse and ill-treatment.

In 2021, at least 32,425 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya. At least 1,553 are presumed to have drowned last year, according to IOM.

Investigators commissioned by the United Nations’ top human rights body found evidence of possible crimes against humanity committed in Libya against migrants detained in the country.

Source: Bahrain News Agency