Darfur Arab tribes sign truce after clashes kill 140

Monday 13 August 2007.

August 12, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Rival Darfur Arab tribes have signed a truce after more than 140 people died in clashes, an official and tribal leaders said on Sunday.

"It’s an agreement to cease hostilities," Mohamed Ahmed Hassan, a Terjem tribal leader, told Reuters of the deal his tribe signed with the Rizeigat on Saturday.

"If the Rizeigat adhere to and respect the agreement, the Terjem will not violate it," he said.

Both are Arab tribes in South Darfur state. Fighting has continued on and off for months between them, but a reconciliation deal signed in February fell apart in July.

Ali Hassan, a Rizeigat tribal leader, said his group was committed to the truce. "We are going around trying to explain it to our people," he said.

Most of the casualties of the fighting were Terjem.

"Around 145 of our people were killed between July 30 and August 8," said Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, adding that 40 people with serious injuries were still in hospital in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.

"We have buried them in mass graves," he added. He said the Rizeigat had superior firepower.

South Darfur’s Labour Minister Abdul Rahman al-Zein has previously said three Rizeigat were killed in the clashes.

Each tribe blamed the other for starting the fighting.

The Terjem are a sedentary farming tribe while the Rizeigat are nomadic cattle herders. The latest problems began as the Rizeigat moved north in their seasonal migration, passing close to Terjem territory. The Terjem say the cattle eat their crops.

"The Terjem tell them you cannot pass through here," said Zein. "The government will deploy forces in the trouble spots to ensure compliance."

Ali Hassan declined to comment on the numbers killed.

Fighting over land and resources had been going on in Darfur for decades, before the region’s revolt broke out in early 2003. The conflict has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.

Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.

(Reuters)