From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri May 29 2009 - 14:03:52 EDT
Sudan tribal clashes kill 244, including police
Fri May 29, 2009 8:28am GMT
KHARTOUM, May 29 (Reuters) - Scores of policemen and nearly 200 tribesmen
were killed in clashes this week between two pastoralist groups in Sudan's
South Kordofan area, Sudan's state news agency SUNA reported on Friday.
Sudan's Internal Affairs Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad put the total number
dead after the fighting at 244, according to SUNA.
"The death toll is 89 among the Misseriya, 80 among the Rizeigat and 75
policemen," Hamad told a cabinet meeting in Khartoum.
Some 3,000 armed horsemen attacked police positions on Tuesday where the
police were trying to provide a buffer between the two tribes who are
frequently in conflict, often in cattle raids and over grazing land and
water in the semi-arid area.
Positioned in the middle of Sudan, South Kordofan was a major conflict area
in a 22-year-long war between Khartoum and rebels from southern Sudan that
ended in 2005. The area is still struggling to recuperate and is prey to
severe tribal rivalries.
The oil-producing state's Information Minister Ali Kuku told Reuters that
although he could not give exact death tolls local estimates put the police
death toll at about 80 and similar numbers for warriors from each of the
tribes.
"We didn't expect this big thing to happen," he said, adding that the
fighting began as a small conflict between a few individuals from each tribe
but spiralled out of control. "The war has stopped now, but we're
investigating what happened," he said. (Reporting by Skye Wheeler in
Khartoum; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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