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KHARTOUM - 29 Oct 2013

134,000 displaced by tribal clashes in need of aid in East Darfur

An estimated 134,000 people, displaced as a result of Rizeigat-Ma’alia tribal clashes in East Darfur, are in need of humanitarian assistance, the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) has announced.

These people were displaced from their villages in Adila and Abu Karinka localities following inter-tribal fighting that began in August 2013 reportedly triggered by unresolved disputes concerning access to land resources.

Hundreds of people of both sides were killed and injured as a result of the escalating violence. The two tribes signed a peace agreement in late August, although reports of instability in the region continued to surface.

HAC says that this fighting has displaced an estimated 84,910 people in Abu Karinka and 50,000 in Adila. However, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) notes that government restrictions due to the insecurity have prevented humanitarian organisations from assessing the needs of these people or verifying their numbers.

In the same weekly report, OCHA pointed out that the international NGO Save the Children Sweden (SCS), the State Ministry of Health (SMoH) and the HAC have distributed education material to some 3,500 children in six schools in West Kordofan’s Muglad locality. SCS also distributed hygiene kits to some 200 unaccompanied children at three child friendly spaces in South Kordofan’s Delling locality.

File photo: A camp for displaced persons near Tawila (Albert González Farran/Unamid)