Battles between ethnic minorities in southern Sudan have killed at least 16 people and injured dozens more, triggering a regional night-time curfew, according to state media on Tuesday.
Fighting broke out Sunday in Kosti, the capital of White Nile state, which borders South Sudan, according to the state-run SUNA news agency.
The clashes were considered as unrelated to the significant military clashes that have erupted across Sudan since April 15 between forces loyal to two opposing generals, claiming at least 750 fatalities.
Tensions between ethnic groups have long simmered, centered on disagreements over scarce water and land resources between farmers and pastoralists, and have frequently erupted into lethal bloodshed.
Did you read this?
It was unclear what sparked the recent skirmishes in White Nile, which SUNA reported had "killed 16 people on both sides, injured many more, and left some houses burned."
Last October, deadly violence erupted in neighboring Blue Nile state, pitting the Hausa against other communities and killing at least 200 people in two days.
The Sudanese Hausa, who are part of a wider African ethnic group, claim they are discriminated against and are forbidden from owning land in Blue Nile.
According to the United Nations, at least 149 people were murdered and 65,000 were affected in Blue Nile between July and early October of last year.
According to UN and World Bank data, access to land frequently creates tensions in the arid and impoverished country, where farming and herding account for 43 percent of employment and 30 percent of GDP.
Sudan has been gripped by wider instability since a power struggle between forces loyal to army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who controls the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, erupted into violence.
Fighting in Khartoum and other towns has killed 750 people, injured thousands, and displaced hundreds of thousands, with many refugees fleeing the nation.
-1732277552.jpg)
