15 killed as Sennar clashes continue

In renewed fighting between armed herdsmen and members of a paramilitary force in Abu Houjar locality on Sunday evening, fifteen people were killed and dozens were wounded.

After the first report that one person was shot dead when herdsmen and members of the Central Reserve Forces (known as Abu Tira) clashed in Kokary on Sunday, sources told Radio Dabanga that clashes resumed the following evening, also in Kokary. 

Herders attacked the Abu Tira camp at 5pm, in retaliation to the death of the herder and wounding two others earlier that day. 13 paramilitaries and two herdsmen were killed, the source reported, while dozens from both parties sustained varying injuries. The attackers seized weapons of the Abu Tira, chased them away, and torched their camp.

Authorities have sent a convoy of two tankers and ten vehicles mounted with machine guns to the scene, where the situation is very tense, according to the source.

Tension over grazing

The Nazir (top administrator) of the Rufaa tribe, Yousif Ahmed Younis, attributed the cause of the tension to the delayed implementation of a presidential decree that stipulates the resettlement of Sudanese nomads and their cattle from South Sudan.

Younis: “The situation is serious. The Abu Tira attack returnees, murder them, and hold others in detention.”

The Nazir demanded the Abu Tira troops withdraw, and that the authorities open the tracks for the migratory herders who have returned from South Sudan after the secession. “They need basic services such as health and education.”

Decree 209

When South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, Sudanese migratory herders returned to the north with their cattle. President Omar Al Bashir announced decree 209 in 2013: for the Sudanese nomads and their cattle to be able to continue their annual migration (which covers the southern territory as well) and seamlessly move their large number of livestock to areas such as Sennar and Blue Nile.

But either the local governments or the Abu Tira force have so far not allowed the herders passage and let the cattle graze in these areas, despite calls to the governments by the nomadic herders.