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Tribal clashes threaten fragile Sudan peaceDate : 02/09/2009 Publication
: German Press Agency dpa Category
: Feature
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A fragile peace has held between north and south Sudan since the end of a 21-year civil war in 2005, but a recent upsurge in deadly tribal clashes in the south has raised fears of a return to large-scale conflict.
Tribal disputes, mainly over cattle, have long been common in the autonomous Southern Sudan, but easy access to weapons left over from the civil war between the Muslim north and Christian and animist south has helped ramp up the body count.
More than 1,000 people have died as a result of tribal violence this year. The latest deaths came Friday when over 40 people perished in a clash between the Dinka Bor and Lou Nuer tribes.
Sudanese have been shocked by a shift in the pattern to the violence, which has begun to claim the lives of more women and children.
"Usually we see traditional cattle rustling, where cattle are targeted and men are the ones injured," Jonathan Whittall, the head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Southern Sudan, told the German Press Agency dpa.
"What we see this year is a lot more women and children being killed and deaths outnumbering the wounded," he added. "The intention is to go into villages ... with the clear goal to kill as many people as possible."
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