The Rizeigat Arab tribe, the largest in East Darfur, has announced terms of reconciliation that need to be met by the Ma’alia tribe in order to end their feud.
More than 100 people were killed in fighting between the two tribes last year, with 23 more reported killed in renewed clashes in late March. Fighting spread in early April to involve also the Hamar, a tribe from Kordofan, which clashed with the Ma’alia in an oil-producing area.
In a press statement, the Chairman of the Shura Council of the Rizeigat Ali Majok announced that conditions for peace talks with the Ma’alia would be not granting hakura (exclusive land rights) or a nazirate (a high-level chieftancy) to the Ma’alia, nor allowing them to have a local tribal militia in Kulaykili Locality.
These are apparently points on which the tribe does not wish to compromise. In a press statement, Majok pointed out that grievances between the two tribes dated back more than 40 years, emphasizing that any peace conference had to be followed up with commitment to the terms of agreement.
The tribal disputes in East Darfur have drawn high-level attention in Khartoum in part because tensions threaten the stability of oil-producing fields in the region along the West Kordofan-East Darfur border.
Sudan’s Second Vice President met with a delegation of the Rizeigat native administration, headed by Mohamed Musa Ibrahim Musa Madibo, Al Intibaha newspaper reported on Friday. The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the Legislative Council of North Darfur Abdelrahman Ahmed Musa, MP Jibril Abdullah, Islamic leaders and other dignitaries.
Moreover, the feuding is considered potentially destabilizing in relation to the ongoing crisis in North Darfur, where the Governor Osman Kibir is at odds with formerly government-backed militia leader Musa Hilal, leader of the Mahamid, which is considered a northern branch of the Rizeigat.
The North Darfur crisis prompted President Omar Al Bashir last month to attend the Um Jaras forum hosted in Chad, where Hilal’s son-in-law the Chadian president sought to mediate a solution.
Yunis Farah, the spokesman of the Riziegat council, says the central government is responsible for the conflict between Musa Hilal and Kibir, blaming the government for not taking any serious action to solve the problem.
The spokesman warned that the situation is explosive. While denying that Hilal was actually in rebellion, he pointed to indications of efforts by the armed movements to push Hilal toward taking up arms against the government.
Farah may have been referring to recent reports of contacts between Hilal and the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi.
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