KHARTOUM: At least 213 people were killed in three days of violence between Arab and non-Arab groups in Sudan’s West Darfur, the state governor said, giving the first official toll for recent clashes.
West Darfur has been gripped by days of deadly fighting largely centered in Krink, a locality of nearly 500,000 people and mostly inhabited by the African Massalit tribe.
“This massive crime left around 201 killed and 103 wounded” on Sunday alone, said West Darfur governor Khamees Abkar in a video published late Tuesday.
The violence first broke out on Friday and escalated when armed men attacked villages of the non-Arab Massalit in retaliation for the killing of two tribesmen, according to the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an independent aid group.
At least eight people were killed on Friday, Abkar said, confirming a death toll for that day already reported by the aid group.
The state governor blamed government forces tasked with securing Krink and its environs for “withdrawing without any justification” as the main attacks began early Sunday.
Krink town “was completely destroyed including government institutions,” Abkar said. “It is a crime against humanity.”
The fighting on Monday spread to Geneina, the provincial capital of West Darfur.
Witnesses have accused the Janjaweed militia of orchestrating the violence.
The Janjaweed was an Arab militia which gained notoriety for its role in the repression of an ethnic minority rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s under then autocrat Omar Al-Bashir.
According to rights groups, many of its members were later integrated into the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, now de facto deputy leader of Sudan.
The General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur on Monday reported a combined death toll of 180 for the fighting around Krink and in Geneina, including four killed in the state capital on Monday.
Abkar on Wednesday confirmed to AFP that four were killed on Monday, taking the total toll to at least 213.
On Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said several medical workers were killed in the fighting as hospitals were attacked.
Consequently, “MSF teams have not been able to reach the health facilities we support nor conduct mobile clinic activities” in Geneina and cannot return to Krink, the aid group said in a statement.
The conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, according to the UN.
The region remains awash with weapons and has seen a renewed spike in deadly violence in recent months triggered by disputes mainly over land, livestock and access to water and grazing.
The latest violence comes as Sudan grapples with fallout from a coup in October last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
Clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur killed over 210: governor
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Clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur killed over 210: governor
- West Darfur has been gripped by days of deadly fighting largely centred in Krink
- "This massive crime left around 201 killed and 103 wounded" on Sunday alone, said West Darfur governor Khamees Abkar in a video published late Tuesday
Lebanon’s government approves a deal to transfer Syrian prisoners back to Syria
- Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides
- A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Cabinet on Friday approved an agreement to transfer Syrian prisoners serving their sentences in Lebanon back to their home country.
The issue of prisoners has been a sore point as the neighboring countries seek to recalibrate their relations following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led insurgents in December 2024. Former insurgent leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa is now Syria’s interim president.
Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides. Many Lebanese resent the decades-long occupation of their country by Syrian forces that ended in 2005. Many Syrians resent the role played by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah when it entered Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government.
A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus had asked Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials said Beirut would not release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately.
The deal approved Friday appeared to resolve that tension. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said other issues remain to be resolved between the two countries, including the fate of Lebanese believed to have been disappeared into Syrian prisons during Assad’s rule and the demarcation of the border between the two countries.
Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that about 300 prisoners would be transferred as a result of the agreement.
Protesters gathered in a square below the government palace in downtown Beirut ahead of the Cabinet vote to call for amnesty for Lebanese prisoners, including some who joined militant groups fighting against Assad in Syria. Some of the protesters called for the release of Sunni cleric Ahmad Al-Assir, imprisoned for his role in 2013 clashes that killed 18 Lebanese army soldiers.
“The state found solutions for the Syrian youth who are heroes and belong to the Syrian revolution who have been imprisoned for 12 years,” said protester Khaled Al- Bobbo. “But in the same files there are also Lebanese detainees. ... We demand that just as they found solutions for the Syrians, they must also find solutions for the people of this country.”
