EL FASHER/ED DAEIN

(

29 Aug

.) -

The Darfur Regional Authority has declared that the leaders of the Rizeigat and Ma'aliya tribes in East Darfur have agreed to a cessation of hostilities, eight days after the massacre in Um Rakuba, which claimed the lives of hundreds of men from both tribes. The government has deployed troops to prevent further clashes between the tribes.

Speaking from El Fasher on Thursday, Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) spokesman Abdel Karim Mousa declared toandnbsp;Radio Dabanga that this agreement came as a response to an initiative from the DRA, which called on the tribes to directly enter into dialogue.

He announced that DRA Chairman Dr Tijani Sese charged his newly formed mediation committee to immediately start with the implementation of the agreement on the ground within 72 hours. The committee of prominent authorities in Darfur has to do so in cooperation with the leaders of the local administrations in the region.

Sudan deploys more troops

The Sudanese government has deployed two battalions, according to a local official, to prevent further friction between the Rizeigat and Ma'aliya. The battalions consist of an armed military force, equipped with 90 modern devices, and are to be stationed in the border areas outside the lands which are home to the tribes.

Hamdan Abdallah Tirab, the Member of Parliament of the constituency of Abu Karinka, further reported to Radio Dabanga that the Federal Ministry of Health has sent a medical convoy composed of a number of doctors to the hospitals in Adilla and Abu Karinka on Wednesday, in order to treat the wounded tribesmen.

Tirab already stated last week that a police battalion with armoured vehicles and a helicopter would be deployed to the area of conflict.

Since the beginning of this year, tribal conflicts have frustrated the formation of a new government in East Darfur State. “The insecurity in the state, caused by the continuous tension and erupting clashes between the Rizeigat and Ma'aliya, has sparked an administrative crisis in East Darfur’, an activist reported to Radio Dabanga from the state capital of El Daein on 13 August.

File photo: Signing of a peace treaty between Ma’aliya and Rizeigat in North Darfur, August 2013andnbsp;(Hamid Abdulsalam/Unamid)

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