Pastoralists vs farmers in west Darfur

Scores, if not hundreds, of people have been killed and injured in a large-scale conflict between indigenous farming communities and nomadic pastoralists in west Darfur since late last year, an assessment team has found. Over 60 villages have been burnt down, some 2,000 families have been displaced into the state capital Al Geneina and an estimated 10,000 people have crossed the border into Chad, according to a report, received by IRIN, on last week’s UN/NGO/government assessment mission. Sporadic conflict between the two groups over scarce land and water resources in isolated and underdeveloped west Darfur has been exacerbated by factors such as climate change and drought, the use of slash-and-burn farming techniques and the increasing availability of small firearms, the report said.