Ethnic violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur over the past week has led to loss of lives and displaced more than 15,000 people, the United Nations said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a personal dispute in the village of Adikong between two men from the Masalit ethnic group and an Arab nomadic group sparked the conflict near the city of El Geneina.
Armed nomads then attacked the local market, set fire to part of the village, and killed nine people including two children, it added.
Analysts link the recent increase in violence in the war-weary Darfur region to a peace deal signed in October 2020 that has led to some groups jostling for power while not adequately addressing security concerns.
The fighting also forced more than 4,000 people to flee across the border to Chad and 11,100 to be displaced within the El Geneina locality.
The early-2000s conflict in Darfur between rebel groups on one side and government forces and allied militias on the other caused an estimated 300,000 deaths. About 2.5 million people live in displacement camps across Darfur, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
