Armed tribal group burns Sudan's east Darfur state governor mansion, kills 3 guards

An armed tribal group on Monday stormed governor's mansion of Sudan's East Darfur State, burned it to the ground and killed three guards, Sudan Tribune reported.

"An armed group from Al-Savanna movement of Rizeigat tribe attacked the house of the governor, who left on Sunday afternoon to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, to take part in a workshop on collecting arms and controlling of light weapons," the report said.

"Three of the security guards of the governor's house were killed after they exchanged fire with the attackers, while the outskirts of El Daein town witnessed intensive firing of shells," it noted.

According to the report, "the attackers completely burned the governor's house and three Land Cruiser vehicles in protest of the killing of the second commander of Al-Savanna movement during clashes with Ma'liya tribe at Khour Ta'an area."

The incident came just one day after the killing of 12 people in violent clashes between Rizeigat and Ma'liya Arab tribes in Sudan's East Darfur State.

On Sunday an armed group from Rizeigat tribe was reported to have ambushed a group of members of Ma'liya near Khour Ta'an of Yassin locality in East Darfur State, which left seven members of Ma'liya tribe and five from Rizeigat killed and nine others injured.

The conflict between Rizeigat and Ma'liya dates back to 1966 when the first confrontation broke out between the two due to pasture land dispute.

The most recent clashes between the pair took place in July 2014 where over 600 people were killed and 900 others wounded from both sides, while more than 55,000 were displaced. Endit