The bloody inter-communal fighting between Masalit and Arab tribes in the city of El Geneina in the Darfur region in January 2020 and January and April of this year 2021 became known as the incidents of Krinding 1 and Krinding 2, Abuzar camp and the Jabal neighborhood.
Hundreds killed and wounded
These events claimed the lives of at least 452 people on both sides, including 43 women and children, and left 528 wounded, according to the leaders of the two warring sides.
In 2003, shortly after the outbreak of the armed conflict in Darfur between the government and the armed movements, large numbers of both sides became involved, one siding with the armed movements and the other with the government.
Root causes of the conflict between Arabs and Masalit
The account of the Arab tribes says that the year 1983 was the beginning of the attacks on them by the Masalit tribesmen .
While the Masalit version of the story attributes the conflicts between the two sides to the Arabs of armed looting and raiding Masalit villages in an attempt to impoverish the tribe until it reached the famous incident of 1997, according to the Masalit leader Mujibur Rahman.
Both Masalit and Arab tribes agree that the accumulation of injustice on both sides and the absence of solutions by the ruling authority led to the establishment of the Masalit, among other tribes, an armed rebellion movement and prompted the Arabs to side with the government and arm themselves with their weapons to fight the alliance of the rebellious tribes.
In the city of El Geneina, the power of the Masalit seems evident on the one hand, with their ability to create chaos without anyone being able to deter them, they have taken refuge in all state institutions into shelter centers due to their displacement from Krinding camp, Abuzer and the Jabal neighborhood.
The armed manifestations of Masalit tribe are visible in the ranks of the armed movements and the active recruitment and training activities that the conflict with the Arabs created a favorable climate for polarization and recruitment in favor of the predominantly ethnic movements of the Masalit tribe.
On the other hand, the Arabs seem their dominance through the multiplicity of their armed power centers, some of which are hidden from the eye, so they rely on their extensive armament in the deserts and villages adjacent to the city of El Geneina, in addition to their overwhelming presence within the Rapid Support Forces, which are forces that control the field situation throughout the city.
It seemed to me that the Arabs have several resources – financial and equipment – that help them accomplish logistical tasks during the conflicts that erupt with the Masalit, making them more effective in addition to the availability of information.
However, the two sides exchange accusations about the Arabs benefiting from the bias of some of the Rapid Support Forces soldiers towards them, while the Arabs accuse some of the policemen of siding with the Masalit.
Position of the government forces
Those who spoke to us from the residents of the city of El Geneina agreed that all componenets of the government forces , stood by and watched during the recent fighting that broke out between the two tribes.
The current situation between the two tribes
There is no peace agreement between the two sides that preserves peace and security, and all that is in the matter is that the parties
exhausted their energy from the fighting that lasted four days without any party interfering to stop it during the second week of last April
Now, there is no clear intention on the horizon for any of the two parties to resume the fighting, but the possibility of long-range fighting rounds may be possible due to the great rivalry between them
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