Sustained tension in Eastern Sudan

12/12/2011 17:13

An United Nations Development Program (UNDP) official has reported a sustained build up of tensions between the Beja tribe and other ethnic groups in Eastern Sudan. The region is suffering from a severe lack of economic development and an easy accessibility of weapons. The official working in Kassala, said that fighters from the Beja tribe were gathering at Jebel Hamid on the border of Sudan and Eritrea. The report stated that fighters have been planning and organizing ground attacks for the past three months. In 2006, the Eastern Front, an east Sudanese movement, signed a peace deal with Khartoum ending a lingering insurgency, but complaints of neglect continue. The UN news agency IRIN was told by the UNDP official that the head of the Beja tribe Mohammed Ali Adam had told his members that the situation has not improved even after the rebellion that ended five years ago. Basic services such as schools and hospitals have not yet been provided even though the government had been promising to establish them. The official said that tensions made the region like “a volcano waiting to erupt”.

An United Nations Development Program (UNDP) official has reported a sustained build up of tensions between the Beja tribe and other ethnic groups in Eastern Sudan. The region is suffering from a severe lack of economic development and an easy accessibility of weapons.

The official working in Kassala, said that fighters from the Beja tribe were gathering at Jebel Hamid on the border of Sudan and Eritrea.

The report stated that fighters have been planning and organizing ground attacks for the past three months. In 2006, the Eastern Front, an east Sudanese movement, signed a peace deal with Khartoum ending a lingering insurgency, but complaints of neglect continue.

The UN news agency IRIN was told by the UNDP official that the head of the Beja tribe Mohammed Ali Adam had told his members that the situation has not improved even after the rebellion that ended five years ago. Basic services such as schools and hospitals have not yet been provided even though the government had been promising to establish them. The official said that tensions made the region like “a volcano waiting to erupt”.