Sudanese Attorney General Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Haber issued a decision today to form a committee to investigate bloody confrontations in the city of El Geneina, West Darfur State, in the west of the country, while the state authorities said that joint military forces were able to control the confrontations that left 129 people dead.

The Public Prosecution said in a statement that the investigation committee into the events of El Geneina and Karding camp will include investigating the repercussions and identifying the causes that led to the occurrence of the events, the perpetrators, and the measures taken by the state authorities.

Earlier in the day, the Governor of South Darfur, Musa Mahdi, said that joint military forces were able to control the tribal confrontations that lasted 3 days, killing 129 people, and wounding 198 others, including children and newborns, according to the Sudanese Doctors Committee.

Many areas in Darfur are witnessing tribal fighting between Arab and African tribes, as part of conflicts over land, resources and grazing paths.

There are no official estimates of the size of the weapons deployed in the hands of the tribes in the states of Darfur, while unofficial reports indicate that the tribes possess hundreds of thousands of weapons, including heavy and medium weapons.

Cautious calm

The Agence France-Presse reported that cautious calm prevails today in the areas that witnessed tribal clashes, which came more than two weeks after the end of the joint peace forces mission between the United Nations and the African Union in the Darfur region.

Sudanese Radio reported that military reinforcements arrived in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State, from the neighboring Sudanese states, in addition to police forces who came from Khartoum, and state authorities imposed an indefinite curfew.

"There have been no clashes since Sunday, but there are incidents of robbery affecting farmers' homes in the Kirdeng camp for the displaced," Agence France-Presse quoted the Governor of West Darfur State, Muhammad Abdullah Al-Douma, as saying.

The governor added that 8 villages near the city of El Geneina were burned and their crops were looted, and accused gangs who came from outside the state of being behind the violence, in addition to what he described as intruders who crossed the border from neighboring Chad.

Peace agreement

Last October, the transitional government that took power after the overthrow of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last April signed a peace and reconciliation agreement with a number of armed factions, especially in Darfur.

Although fighting between armed groups in Darfur has subsided in recent years, it occurs from time to time due to competition over land and water resources.

Control of security is one of the priorities of the Sudanese government during a transitional period, which began on August 21, 2019 and lasts for 53 months, ending with elections in early 2024, during which power is shared by the army and the Coalition of Freedom and Change Forces.