23 killed in feud between clans in south Egypt

A bloody feud involving political tensions, a harassed girl and offensive graffiti has killed at least 23 people in two days of fighting in Egypt’s southern Aswan province, government officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The clashes between an Arab clan and a Nubian family left homes torched and bodies strewn on hospital floors, witnesses said.

An Interior Ministry statement said the fighting in Aswan province erupted over the alleged harassment of a girl, and after students from the two sides later sprayed offensive graffiti at a local school. Vendetta killings occasionally occur in southern Egypt, where perceived violations of honor often spark violence, but this fighting apparently raged while security forces did nothing to stop it.

Nubian students' graffiti accused members of the Arab Beni Helal clan of working for the former governments of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and overthrown Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, witnesses said. They said offensive graffiti sprayed earlier this week on a school wall accused the Nubians of backing the military after a community delegation met former military chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi – who led the military overthrow of Morsi and is now running for president.

A security official said that tensions in the area also come from accusations that some Arab Beni Helal members take part in an arms- and drug-smuggling ring. Aswan is a way station for a smuggling ring from Sudan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

A Nubian resident, who asked that his name not be used because he feared retribution, said he locked himself and his family inside their house to avoid revenge attacks. He said two members of his family were killed in the fighting.

"There is terror now in the area," he said. "At the outset, we'd call the police and they tell us, 'You work it out.'"

Authorities said more than a dozen schools in the area of the fighting will be closed indefinitely until calm is restored.

Footage from the area on social media that appeared consistent with Associated Press reporting showed school children pelting a rival group, despite the presence of an armored police vehicle before the bloodshed.

Adel Abu Bakr, a Nubian resident of Aswan, said members of the Arab Beni Helal first beat a Nubian and then shot dead three Nubians, including a woman, on Friday. Another Nubian was killed later that night, he said. Following their funerals, hundreds of Nubians attacked the Arab neighborhood, killing over a dozen people using mostly sticks and daggers, he said.

Health official Mohammed Azmi told private television station CBC that 23 people were killed and 12 are in critical condition. A local government statement said 31 were injured. Abu Bakr said a Nubian community center was set on fire, and other witnesses said seven homes were torched. Ambulances failed to reach the neighborhood were the two clans live, leaving bodies strewn around the area.

The Interior Ministry said police officers attempted to negotiate a truce late Friday and arrested three people, but fighting resumed Saturday.

Later Saturday, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and the interior minister traveled to Aswan to mediate.

Abu Bakr said the police failed to stem the violence, and called for the army to intervene.

"The (police) presence would have changed the nature of this fight," he said.

A joint statement from the two clans accused "invisible hands" of igniting the feud. In a Facebook post, military spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali blamed members of Morsi's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement of trying to ignite the fighting. He did not offer evidence to support the claim. Egypt's military-backed interim government routinely blames the group for violence.

Wire services