Fresh clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs left at least 30 people dead and 40 others wounded in Sudan’s West Darfur region on Sunday.
Militiamen backed by a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, attacked internally displaced persons in Kreinik camp and set their houses ablaze.
Arab fighters known as Janjaweed attacked the camp early Sunday morning after the murder. The fighting had been going on for weeks, a dispute late Saturday between a customer and the owner of a mobile phone store who was shot dead -snowballed into the latest clashes.
Mustafa Mohammed Zain, a medical assistant at Kirenik Hospital said the hospital admitted over 30 persons and more than 40 others who were severely wounded got treated and discharged.
The hospital lacks basic medical equipment and does not have adequate medical workers to respond to the wounded, Zain said. He called on state and national health authorities to urgently intervene. The hospital has run out of supplies like gauze and cotton, Zain said.
“We used all the reserve stock,” he said. “Medical workers are not safe and cannot go to the nearest location to get more medical supplies.”
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan said an estimated 4,300 people have been displaced from the Jebel Moon area of West Darfur state in the last week due to the crisis.
Mohammed Issa Alieu, the acting regional governor for Darfur, last week called the humanitarian situation in Jebel Moon “horrific” and appealed to aid agencies to quickly intervene.
Thousands of displaced families have crossed to eastern Chad and are exposed to bad weather, Alieu said.
Despite a peace agreement signed between the government and armed groups in Darfur more than a year ago, the area has seen repeated clashes between different ethnic communities.
A land dispute last month between communities in the Jebel Moon area led to clashes that left at least 17 people dead.
Under the Juba Peace Agreement, various forces were supposed to deploy a 12,000-strong presence in Darfur within 90 days to secure the area and provide protection for civilians.