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CAIRO, May 8 (AP) — Armed fighters clashed last month in a city in Sudan’s restive Darfur region, killing at least 100 people, according to a Sudanese doctor syndicate.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page late Sunday, the doctors’ union added that hospitals in the Darfur city of Genena remained out of service and it was still difficult to accurately count the number of wounded.
The fighting in Jenana comes days after two rival generals in Sudan exchanged fire in the capital Khartoum, suggesting the conflict could spread to other parts of the East African country.
The group’s death toll has risen as talks between the warring sides continue in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.
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Talks between the kingdom’s military delegation and a delegation from the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are expected to last several days, a statement from the Saudi foreign ministry said on Monday.
The talks, focused on establishing humanitarian corridors to allow the flow of aid and civilians, are part of a broader diplomatic initiative by Saudi Arabia and the United States aimed at halting the fighting.
The doctors’ union did not specify who was on either side of the conflict in Genena, a city of about half a million people near the Chadian border that has been a flashpoint since the early days of the fighting.
Late last month, residents described how armed fighters, many wearing the uniform of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, rampaged through the city, looting shops and homes and engaging hostile forces. They said the fighting had drawn in tribal militias and touched off a long-running feud between the region’s two main communities — one Arab and the other East or Central African.
In the early 2000s, African tribes in Darfur who had long complained of discrimination rebelled against the Khartoum government, which responded with military action that the International Criminal Court later said amounted to genocide.
State-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed have been accused of widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities. The Janjaweed later evolved into the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
At least 481 civilians were killed in the mid-April clashes in Khartoum between the military led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, according to the same doctor’s statement. The number of civilians injured has jumped to more than 2,560.
On Friday, the governor of Genena’s West Darfur state accused the RSF of vandalizing government offices, setting fire to more than 10 shelters housing displaced communities and looting houses and shops.
“Today, West Darfur is a doomed province. The remaining Darfur population lives in very poor conditions,” General Khamis Abdullah Abkar said in a video posted on a local news website on Friday.
“The international community should not remain silent on the challenges facing the province. It should act now; people need shelter, food and medicine,” he said.
The paramilitary group has repeatedly denied claims that its troops terrorize civilians or use brutal methods. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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