Tribal fighting claims at least 18 lives in Egypt

At least 18 people have been killed and several others injured in violent tribal clashes in Egypt’s southern province of Aswan.

Officials say they fear the death toll could rise as fighting rages on between the Bani Hilal tribesmen and Nubian villagers.

The clashes erupted following an argument at a reconciliation meeting that soon turned into a firefight between the rival tribes.

Police have sent reinforcements to the region to contain the violence.

Impoverished Southern Egypt has been the scene of similar clashes in the past, but this week’s violence is the worst in recent memory.

Tribes have also exploited a security vacuum that developed in the region since the 2011 uprising against the country’s former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

Violence in several regions of Egypt has intensified since Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by the military in early July 2013.

The ouster of Morsi sparked mass protests which were met by a bloody crackdown from the army-backed interim government.

The country has plunged into an unrelenting string of violence since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former Egyptian defense minister, pushed aside Morsi and declared chief justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, as the interim president.

Since then, anti-government demonstrators have been holding rallies almost on a daily basis demanding that Morsi be reinstated.

On Saturday, Egypt’s Anti-Coup Alliance led by the Muslim Brotherhood once again called for nationwide protests against the army-backed government. Journalists have also gone on strike, demanding that security forces protect reporters while covering protests.

Rights groups say at least 1,400 people have been killed in the violence since the ouster of Morsi, “most of them due to excessive force used by security forces.”