Ravaged for decades by war, the Darfur region has been the scene of new violence.

They started five days ago in Krink, inhabited mainly by the Massalit tribe, and spread towards El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur.

According to the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, the violence erupted when armed fighters from Arab tribes attacked Massalit villages, an African ethnic minority, in retaliation for the death of two members of their tribes.  

The heaviest toll was recorded on Sunday with "201 dead and 13 injured", West Darfur Governor Khamis Abkar said in a video released late Tuesday, April 26.

In addition, eight people were killed on Friday and four others on Monday, according to Khamis Abkar.

In his video, the governor also accused government forces tasked with providing security for Krink of "withdrawing without any justification" as fighting escalated on Sunday.

The town of Krink "has been completely destroyed, including the government institutions", lamented Khamis Abkar.

"It's a crime against humanity."

UN calls for investigation

Witnesses accused the Janjawid militia, a proxy force for the Sudanese government, of orchestrating the violence.

These militiamen used by the dictator Omar al-Bashir in his long war launched in 2003 in Darfur have, in recent years, joined by the thousands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo, number two in military power. in place since the October putsch in Khartoum.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Wednesday April 27, said she was "dismayed".

"I call on the Sudanese authorities to carry out prompt, full, impartial and independent investigations into these attacks and to hold all those responsible to account," Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

According to the UN, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds of houses burnt down during several episodes of violence in Darfur in recent months favored, according to experts, by the security vacuum created by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane's coup in Khartoum in October.

The region was ravaged by a civil war that began in 2003 between the Arab-majority regime and insurgents from ethnic minorities denouncing discrimination.

About 300,000 people died and nearly 2.5 million displaced during the first years of violence, according to the UN.

Sudan, which emerged in 2019 from 30 years of dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir, has been mired in political and economic slump since the October coup.

AFP

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