Tribal Battles Displace Thousands in Darfur
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Version 0 of 1. NAIROBI, Kenya — Intense clashes between two Arab tribes fighting over a gold mine in a remote corner of Darfur, Sudan, have displaced around 100,000 people, becoming one of the biggest crises in Darfur in years, United Nations officials said Friday. The fighting broke out last month in the Jebel Amir gold mining area. The region is so isolated that the United Nations has had to use peacekeeping helicopters to reach the thousands of people on the move, many of whom have been sleeping outside during the cold desert nights with no blankets or plastic sheeting. “Many of these people are living in the open in appalling conditions,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a recent statement. The fight is between the Beni Hussein, who are largely cattle herders, and the northern Rizeigat, a powerful tribe known for its camel herding. Scores of people have been killed and dozens of villages burned, according to the local authorities. Members of the Beni Hussein tribe accused government forces of helping the Rizeigat and giving them powerful weaponry. Darfur, a vast and arid region of western Sudan, has been a battle zone for years. Though some parts have stabilized enough that thousands of displaced people have ventured home, many areas are still hotly contested. The original fault lines between herders and farmers and between Arabs and non-Arabs have split into new conflicts, with violence now being waged by a dizzying array of armed groups. Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College who follows Sudan closely, said that the recent increase in fighting was connected to Sudan’s economic woes. Because of disputes with the newly independent nation of South Sudan, much of Sudan’s oil industry — a vital source of money for both nations — has been battered. Sudan’s currency, the pound, has plunged; rapid inflation has set off riots; and the government has been scrambling for new sources of revenue. As a result, Mr. Reeves said, “the regime has been unable to pay the militias for some time now, and the result is that competition has become inter-Arab.” Thousands of gold miners have been working in Jebel Amir since last year, and the opposing Arab militias have been eager to seize control of the area so they can levy taxes on the miners. Human rights groups said the conflict has widened beyond the two groups because each has called in heavily armed allies from various corners of Darfur. <NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |