The fighting pits the Awlad Omran and al-Ziyoud groups of the Messiriya tribe.

Calm is still to completely return to Messiriya in Kordofan State in West Sudan  where several days of fighting between the rival Awlad Omran and al-Ziyoud groups last week resulted  in the killing of over  100 people on both sides,  Daily Nation of Kenya reported.  Messiriya is one of the largest tribes in Kordofan, which is the main oil-producing region in Sudan.

Guns and heavy weapons were used in the clashes that began with a land dispute, which continued until Thursday, November 27, 2014 reports say. “There were no government troops on the ground to separate the fighters and more than 100 have been killed from both sides,” one Messiriya leader, Mukhtar Babo Nimir, reportedly told news agencies.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment, The Times of India said.  The Sudanese government armed many Arab tribes to help end an insurgency by the mainly non-Arab rebels in Darfur, The Times of India reported, stating that the tribes have turned their guns on  each other in a surge of conflict over resources.

Meanwhile, Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir talking at a news conference in the capital Khartoum on November 30 did not mention the fighting between the rival groups. He called for a clear programme for the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)  to leave,  saying the peacekeepers have become a “burden,” Daily Nation reported. 

UNAMID   and the Sudanese government are engaged in a dispute over the mission’s investigation of reports that Sudanese troops raped 200 women and girls in the Darfur village of Tabit in October 2014. Omar al-Bashir said he had asked the Foreign Ministry to work with the United Nations to end the presence of UNAMID forces in Darfur, explaining that it has become a burden and cannot protect itself.