Inter-communal clashes kill 150 in Sudan

Inter-communal clashes in Sudan have left 150 people dead and 100 others injured in the country’s West Kordofan State.

Two sub-groups of the Misseriya tribe, namely the Zurug and Awlad Amran clans, engaged in fighting near an oil-drilling site in West Kordofan over a land dispute, state-linked media reported Thursday.

The fighting “continued all day because of the land dispute near the oil field,” Mohammed Omer Al-Ansari, a tribal leader, said.

The recent fighting occurred about one month after the same groups clashed in the area. A tribal source said in early June that at least 41 people died in the clashes back then.

According to witnesses, both groups have claimed ownership of a plot of the oil-rich land in the area.

Sudan’s West Kordofan State, which neighbors the Darfur region, has been the scene of worsening inter-communal clashes over the past two years amid the deterioration of Sudan’s economic situation.

In a February report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Sudan’s declining economy has resulted in an increasingly high crime rate and inter-communal clashes over the past two years.