Sudan: Over 100 Dead in Tribal Fighting

Local Editor

More than 100 people have been killed in several days of fighting between two clans in Sudan's oil-rich West Kordofan region, tribal leaders announced on Thursday.

The clashes started on Sunday over a land dispute between two sub-groups of the powerful Misseriya tribe in al-Quwik area near the border with South Sudan.

The fighting between the Zioud and the Awlad Amran groups left 133 people dead, the head of the Misseriya, Mokhtar Babo Nimir, said.

Babo Nimir did not know how many people had been wounded but said the figure was "high".

Both sides were using heavy machine guns in the clashes, which were still raging on Thursday, a second tribal leader in the area said.

"Until this evening there are no government troops on the ground to separate the fighters and more than 100 have been killed from both sides," said the leader, whose clan was not involved in the clashes.

The Misseriya is one of the biggest Arab tribes in Kordofan, and its clans are mostly nomadic cattle herders.

Sudan's government armed the Misseriya and other groups during the country's 22-year civil war which ended in 2005 and led to South Sudan's separation.

The division of the country saw Juba take most of the country's oil production, and left West Kordofan as the main oil-producing region in Sudan.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team