About 100 people have been killed in western Darfur in Sudan since fighting broke out between Arab and African ethnic groups in the city of Kulbus, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR and a local leader.
Local leader Abkar al-Toum claims that at least 62 bodies have been found since militia groups set fire to more than 20 villages. Many must also have disappeared.
The fighting is the latest in a row in the spring between rival groups in Darfur, and follows instability after a military coup in October last year. Following last week’s unrest, 5,000 families are on the run, according to local authorities.
Darfur was severely wounded by a civil war that broke out in 2003, in which local groups considered themselves oppressed by the government in Khartoum, which was then led by Omar al-Bashir. More than 300,000 were killed and at least 2.5 million fled their homes in the ensuing violence, according to the UN.