A Hausa protester in Port Sudan on Tuesday at demonstrations against violence in Blue Nile state where more than 100 people have been killed in ethnic violence. Author - (AFP)
Ethnic clashes in a deadly land dispute in Sudan's Blue Nile state have left 105 dead and 291 injured, the state's health minister said Wednesday, taking a new toll.
In the southern state, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, fighting broke out on July 11 between members of the Berti and Hausa ethnic groups.
Troops were deployed in the state on Saturday to stop the fighting and "the situation is calm now," state health minister Jamal Nasser told AFP.
"Now the task is to shelter the displaced," Nasser said by telephone from the state capital of al-Damazin, about 460 kilometers (285 miles) south of Khartoum.
The United Nations said on Tuesday that more than 17,000 people had fled their homes from the fighting, with 14,000 "taking shelter in three schools in al-Damazin".
But Hausa regional leader Mohamed Noureddine said he believed the death toll would rise, with some people missing after heavy fighting in which houses were set on fire.
"We cannot determine the death toll because there are corpses trapped under the rubble," said Noureddine, who called from Blue Nile to speak to reporters at a news conference in Khartoum.
Another senior Hausa leader, Hafez Omar, accused local officials of being behind the violence and claimed that "government weapons" were used in the violence.
"We hold the governor responsible for what happened," Omar said, and authorities rejected the charge.
Economic Crisis
Map of Sudan with capital Khartoum. Author (AFP)
Deadly clashes regularly erupt in Sudan over land, livestock and access to water and pasture, particularly in areas still awash with weapons left over from decades of civil war.
The violence is the latest unrest to hit the northeastern African nation, which is already reeling from months of mass demonstrations demanding a resumption of the transition to civilian rule after a military coup last year.
Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries and mired in an economic crisis that has deepened since an October coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has seen only a rare interlude of civilian rule since independence.
Fighting in Blue Nile reportedly broke out after Bertis rejected a Hausa request to create a "civic authority to oversee land access", a prominent Hausa member said.
But senior leader Berti said the group was reacting to a "violation" of their land by the Hausa.
Between January and March this year, the UN said aid was provided to 563,000 people in Blue Nile, a region still struggling to rebuild after years of heavy fighting during Sudan's devastating 1983-2005 civil war.
The latest violence in Blue Nile sparked protests, with Hausa people taking to the streets in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday to demand "justice for the martyrs".
Thousands of Hausa also protested on Tuesday in the key eastern towns of Gedaref, Kassala and Port Sudan, as well as El Obeid in North Kordofan.
Between January and March this year, the UN said aid was provided to 563,000 people in Blue Nile.
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