The Sudanese government plans to create a new state in Darfur, bordered by Chad and the Central African Republic, by year-end”.

According to Mohammed Hussein Timane, a member of the local council of Foro Baranga, there have been 24 deaths on both sides since late Saturday in West Darfur state, located 185 km from the capital, El-Geneina.

In response, local authorities declared a nightly curfew and a state of emergency for one month throughout the state, although calm has since returned.

The UN reported that about 4,000 families, or 20,000 people, were displaced and 50 houses were burned down in Foro Baranga. Tribal violence is common in Darfur, often stemming from territorial disputes and water access issues.

A 2003 civil war between Omar al-Bashir’s regime and insurgents from ethnic minorities left an estimated 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN. Experts attribute the rise in tribal conflicts to the security vacuum created by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s coup in October 2021, which marked the end of the fragile transition following Bashir’s removal.

In 2022, UN figures show that tribal conflicts killed over 900 people, injured 1,000, and displaced almost 300,000 in Sudan.