Sudanese security forces intervene as smoke billows from tyres set on fire by Sudanese students protesting the hikes in bread prices due to low wheat supply following the closure of Sudan's Red Sea port of Port Sudan, in the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur on October 17, 2021. ABDELMONIM MADIBU AFP KHARTOUM - At least 168 people have been killed and 98 injured in tribal clashes in the western Darfur town of Kreinik, a spokesman for a refugee group said on Sunday.
The violence is the latest in an increase in such incidents in the war-weary region.
Western Darfur is home to many of the people displaced by the early 2000s conflict in the region, which saw the government put down armed rebels with help from nomadic Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.
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Some 2.5 million people were displaced in the violence and 300,000 were killed. The International Criminal Court is looking into the former President Omar al-Bashir on war crimes charges. The trial began earlier this month for one of his aides, known as Ali Kushayb.
The Coordinating Committee for Refugees and Displaced People accused Janjaweed militias of trying to take control of the land.
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They called for the return of international peacekeepers who withdrew beginning in January 2020.
Representatives for Arab tribes did not respond to calls for comment.
On Friday, violence broke out between Arab nomads and Masalit farmers in Kreinik after an individual altercation, according to several non-governmental organisations.
The Coordinating Committee shared images of burned buildings. The Darfur Bar Association said some 20,000 people had been displaced by the violence.
Aid groups said that stores were ordered to close after sundown when tensions extended to the nearby city of El Geneina.
An aid official said that road blocks across the city had gone up last year, which is a very real possibility of another flare-up of urban violence that killed and injured hundreds of civilians in Geneina city last year.
Violence in Darfur has increased since an October 2020 agreement between the country's post-Bashir transitional government and some of the armed groups that had fought in Darfur.
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Aid groups say that 430,000 people were displaced last year.
The Darfur Bar Association said there was no positive effect from the agreement on people's lives or security across the states of Darfur.