Ma’aliya to raise case to Sudanese Presidency after talks collapse

After the failure to reach a reconciliation agreement with the Rizeigat on Saturday, Ma’aliya tribal leaders intend to raise their case to the Sudanese Presidency.

About 500 tribesmen were killed and 455 were injured during clashes that erupted between the tribes in Abu Karinka locality, East Darfur, in August last year. The fighting left 285 Ma’aliya dead and 205 wounded. 215 Rizeigat were killed and 250 injured. The ‘blood money’ to be paid is estimated at SDG66 billion ($11 million), of which Rizeigat are to pay SDG38 billion, and the Ma’aliya SDG28 billion.

After two weeks of negotiations in Merowe, northern Sudan, the mediators presented the leaders of the two warring tribes with a draft accord. This would commit them to mutual amnesty, the settlement of the blood money, and compensation for the wounded and losses, the return of the affected to their villages now occupied by their opponents, and the normalisation of life by realising peaceful co-existence.

However, the Ma’aliya refused to accept the draft agreement because it contains a paragraph according to which they would lose land to the Rizeigat in Abu Karinka and Adila localities.

“The paragraph states that these lands are considered to be part of the Rizeigat’s customary rights, to which we do not agree,” a Ma’aliya leader told Dabanga, stressing that they consider the draft document “unjust and unfair”.