132 killed in West Darfur clashes

Khartoum, April 9 : West Darfur Governor Mohamed Abdalla Al Doma announced that 132 people were killed in the recent armed clashes in El Geneina, the conflict-hit Sudanese states capital city.

"According to the medical reports, so far, the number of the people killed is 132," Al Doma said at a press conference here on Thursday.

He said the security situation in the city is calm and the armed clashes have ceased, pointing to acts of looting at the outskirts of the state capital, reports Xinhua news agency.He added that the militias which attacked the civilians came from outside the city and from some countries neighbouring Darfur."These are cross-border militias.

Some came from Chad, and some from Libya, but they infiltrated without the knowledge of those countries," he noted.The armed clashes broke out on April 3 between the Al-Massalit and Arab tribes.

Two days later, Sudans Security and Defence Council declared a state of emergency in the state and authorised forces to adopt all necessary measures to end the armed clashes.Sudans Darfur region has been mired in a civil war since 2003.

On December 31, 2020, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution that ends the mandate of the UN-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) in the region.The around 16,000 UNAMID soldiers, who have been deployed in Darfur since 2007, are set to complete their exit in July.

Meanwhile, a UN Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) will deploy during 2021 to support the transitional period in the country.The transitional government in Sudan is trying to fill in the security gap in Darfur by forming a special force from the security and military institutions and armed groups which signed a peace agreement with the government in October 2020.