In one of the fiercest rounds of tribal violence in Sudan in recent years, 220 people have been killed so far in the two days of fighting between two South Sudanese tribes.
Fateh al-Rahman Bakhit, Director General of the Ministry of Health in the Blue Nile, confirmed that the tension exacerbated on Wednesday and Thursday in the city of Wad al-Mahi, located on the border with Ethiopia, has caused hundreds of victims.
The result could be much greater
He said medical teams had counted at least 220 deaths as of Saturday night, adding that the toll could be much higher because the teams were unable to reach the center of the fighting.
He also added in an interview with the Associated Press, that the first humanitarian and medical convoy managed to reach Wad Al-Mahi yesterday, Saturday, in an attempt to assess the situation.
Refugees from the tribal conflict
Huge number of corpses
She explained that she was able to count “this huge number of bodies”, as well as dozens of injured.
Furthermore, he stressed that everyone loses in such clashes, expressing the hope that this will end soon and never happen again.
However, he stressed that strong political, security and civilian interventions are needed to achieve this.
land dispute
Interestingly, fighting in the Blue Nile state, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, was renewed this month due to a land dispute, which led to bloody battles between the Hausa tribe, originally from the West Africa, and the Berta people.
While footage of the accident scene at the time showed several houses burned, charred bodies, and women and children fleeing on foot.
The fighting led to the displacement of about seven thousand people in the city of Rossiyares. Others fled to nearby areas, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
While the authorities imposed a night curfew on Wad Al-Mahi and deployed forces in the area. He also set up a fact-finding committee to look into the clashes.
That round of violence came after a first round that took place between the two tribes in mid-July (2022), killing 149 people through early October.
