The inaugural session of a peace and reconciliation conference between the Arab nomadic tribes the Rizeigat and Ma’alia from Sudan’s East Darfur state was convened on Tuesday in El Fula town in neighbouring West Kordofan.

State Minister of Information and Culture Asia El Dukhri said in remarks to the press that all the necessary arrangements are in place for the meeting to go ahead.

The official said the conference was attended by West Kordofan and East Darfur governors and that representatives of the two tribes had arrived in the venue of the conference.

“We hope that the parties involved reach a reconciliation after signing a peaceful coexistence document in an attempt to end the conflict and bloodshed,” she said.

Separately, a peace conference between the two Arab tribes of Hamar and Ma’alia is scheduled to begin today in El Fula town under the auspices of West Kordofan governor Ahmed Khamis.

A source told Radio Tamazuj that the mediating committee comprises Misseriya tribal leaders and the nazir of the Shukriya tribe Awad Abu Sin and omda Ibrahim of East Darfur.

The two sides are expected to sit without any pre-conditions for the dialogue, according to the same source.

In the month of Ramadan, forces were deployed by the state government to secure a buffer zone between the territories of the feuding Hamar and Ma’alia tribes following clashes between the two Arab tribes over resources and cattle theft. 

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