At least 220 people have been killed in two days of tribal fighting in southern Sudan, a senior health official said. Fighting in Blue Nile province, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, flared up again earlier this month over a land dispute.
“Tensions escalated on Wednesday and Thursday in the town of Wad el-Mahi on the border with Ethiopia,” said health official Fat Arahman Bakheit.
He said officials counted at least 220 dead on Saturday night, adding that the number could be much higher because medical teams have not been able to reach the epicenter of the fighting.
Bakheit said the first humanitarian and medical convoy managed to arrive in Wad el-Mahi late last night to assess the situation.
Videos from the scene show burning houses and charred bodies, as well as women and children fleeing.
Many houses were burned in the fighting, which displaced about 7,000 people in the town of Rusjari.