Tribal clashes break out in remote Darfur region

Tribal clashes in Sudan’s restive Darfur region killed at least 48 people last week, a refugee official said yesterday, the latest round of intercommunal violence to hit Sudan’s neglected peripheries. The fighting is the first reported large-scale tribal violence in Darfur since August – even as eruptions of tribal clashes over the past months have killed more than 350 people in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile province. The clashes between the Misseriya and the Rezeigat tribesmen erupted near the village of Juguma in Central Darfur, following an armed robbery, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. Some 24 of the victims were killed on Sunday after unknown gunmen opened fire on people trying to mediate the conflict, OCHA said.