No fewer than 250 people died in a flare-up of violence between communities in Sudan’s Darfur region over the past week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported on Friday.
According to the UNHCR, at least 100,000 people were left displaced in the renewed hostilities.
The UN Human Rights Office, which published a slightly lower death count, said armed clashes broke out between Arab communities and internally displaced people of the Masalit community on Saturday and Sunday in West Darfur.
As gunshots were fired and homes torched, 160 people were reportedly killed and 215 injured, the UN Human Rights Office said.
In a separate incident on Monday, 72 people died and 73 were injured in South Darfur’s town of Gereida in a land dispute between the Falata and Reizigat tribes, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
“These incidents raise serious concerns about the imminent risk of further violence in Darfur,’’ UN rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said at a news briefing.
She added that the region was rife with decades-old ethnic and tribal tensions.
Ramdasani urged Sudan’s government to restore order and to break the cycle of armed citizens taking the law into their own hands to avenge attacks on members of their communities.
The clashes occurred about two weeks after the UN peacekeepers discontinued their patrols in the Darfur region, preparing for a full withdrawal.