Death toll rises to 30 in Port Sudan clashes, say medics

Thirty people have been killed and 116 wounded in days of clashes between rival ethnic groups in Port Sudan, medical sources told AFP Thursday.

No further details on the casualties were provided.

Violence broke out in the Red Sea city on Sunday evening and has continued despite the arrival of security reinforcements, witnesses said.

Authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew on the eastern city, whose port is the transit point for most of Sudan's foreign trade.

Fighting began when Nuba residents, who had been demonstrating against a new governor, entered a neighbourhood dominated by the Beni Amer people, witnesses said.

There is longstanding hostility between the two ethnic groups.

The Nuba originate from the mountains of Sudan's South Kordofan state, an area that has suffered decades of war with successive Arab-dominated governments in Khartoum.

The Beni Amer regard themselves as among the native inhabitants of eastern Sudan.

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