The Sudanese authorities confirmed that calm had returned to the southern Blue Nile state after bloody tribal clashes that left 60 people dead, while the security forces dispersed demonstrations in Khartoum to demand civilian rule.

The Sudanese army spokesman, Nabil Abdullah, told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the authorities were able to restore calm to the state of Blue Nile, and that they were in control of the situation, after the tribal clashes that lasted for days and led to deaths and injuries.

Abdullah added that the authorities imposed a curfew in the state and strengthened the security presence in it to prevent the recurrence of violence.

Yesterday, the Sudanese authorities announced a curfew at night in the cities of Damazin and Rusires.

For its part, the Sudanese Security and Defense Council, on Sunday, ordered the Attorney General to form a fact-finding committee in the incidents of tribal violence in Blue Nile state.

In a statement read out by the Sudanese army spokesman after a meeting of the Security and Defense Council held yesterday in Khartoum, the council recommended strengthening security deployment and dealing immediately and resolutely with what it described as cases of lawlessness and attacks in the state.

The Minister of Health of the Blue Nile region, Jamal Nasser Al-Sayed, told Al-Jazeera that the number of victims of tribal violence in the region had risen to 60 dead and 157 wounded.

Earlier, a statement by the Blue Nile state government said that the clashes had spread to several towns since last Wednesday, after the killing of a farmer, before the security forces launched a campaign of arrests and control the situation.

For his part, the governor of Blue Nile State, Ahmed Al-Omda, blamed those he described as advocates of sedition and inciters of hate speech and racism, responsible for the tribal conflict.


Hausa is protesting

In the city of Kassala (east), local Sudanese sources said that protesters from the "Hausa" tribe closed the main bridge on the "Gash" river in protest against the tribal violence in the Blue Nile state, which led to the deaths of their tribesmen.

The Secretary-General of the Emirate of "Hausa Tribes" in Kassala State, Jalal al-Din Rabeh, told Al Jazeera that the protesters expressed their rejection of the events in the state, and demanded that all those involved be held accountable on all sides.

For its part, the Popular Movement-North, led by Malik Agar, the ruling party in the state of Blue Nile, called for the arbitration of the voice of reason and work to extinguish the fire of sedition in the region.

The movement said in a press statement that the intervention of elements of an armed movement that is not a signatory to peace, allied with political leaders at home, inflamed the situation in the events of the Blue Nile and introduced the armed nature into tribal disputes.

In a tweet on Twitter, the head of the United Nations Mission to Support the Transition in Sudan, Volker Peretz, expressed his sadness and concern over the violence, and urged communities in Blue Nile to exercise restraint and refrain from revenge, as he put it.

The civil conflict was renewed in the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile in 2011, and affected about one million people, after a long history of fighting between 1983 and 2005.

Protesters in Khartoum burned rubber tires in the streets (Reuters)

Protests in Khartoum

On the other hand, on Sunday, demonstrations took place in a number of areas of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, at the call of what is known as the "resistance committees in Khartoum", to demand a civilian government in the country and the overthrow of what the demonstrators described as a military coup.

The demonstrators also chanted slogans denouncing the incidents of tribal violence in Blue Nile State, southern Sudan.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Sudan reported that the Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators at the Pashadar station, south of Khartoum.

A group of demonstrators gathered at the station to head towards the presidential palace in central Khartoum.

Sudanese security forces deployed in the streets of Khartoum in anticipation of the demonstrations, and placed concrete blocks on the bridges linking the capital with its suburbs to block the main roads leading to the army headquarters, which is the usual place for demonstrations.

Since October 25, 2021, Sudan has witnessed popular protests calling for the return of democratic civilian rule, and rejecting exceptional measures taken by the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council, army commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and those who reject them consider them a "military coup".