SUMMARY
The relationship between the Hotiya Baggara and Newiba, Mahariba, Mahamid groups was strained prior to the outbreak of armed conflict due to pre-existing rivalries. The farms and herd sizes of the Hotiya Baggara had increased as they adopted settled farming alongside cattle-rearing. This led to a decreased willingness to share pasture fields and eventually the Newiba accused the Hotiya Baggara outright of denying them access to pastures and other resources.
During 2005, the Hotiya Baggara clashed repeatedly with the Newiba, Mahariba, Mahamid groups over natural resources. The latter groups had lost animals and badly needed pasture and water resources for their remaining herds, which the Hotiya Baggara refused to share.
The trigger for a full-scale armed conflict came after an exchange of moral accusations between the groups in the autumn of 2005. The Newiba accused a member of the Hotiya Baggara of raping a girl of their tribe in Serif Omra, a locality north of Zalingei in central Western Darfur. The tribe’s law of conflict resolution demanded that the Hotiya Baggara pay the Newiba an amount of money to resolve the issue. The Hotiya Baggara ended up paying the Newiba this amount not only once, but three times. However, during the customary conflict resolution process, insults were exchanged and the reconciliation process collapsed.
The most common account is that a Newiba delegation to the Hotiya Baggara became frustrated and insulted them, leading to the Hotiya Baggara killing the entire seven-man delegation. This in turn prompted a massive counter-attack by the Newiba and their fellow Northern Reizegat groups of Mahariba and Mahamid.
The fighting was mostly focused in the Nyangadoula area, Abaata locality, north of Zalingei, in eastern West Darfur.
The conflict led to a mass displacement of thousands before a series of reconciliation conferences sponsored by the local authorities led to an agreement in March 2006 which brought hostilities to an end.
The non-state conflict between Hotiya Baggara and Newiba, Mahariba, Mahamid is first included in UCDP data in 2005. Between October and December of that year, clashes between the groups n Western Darfurhad resulted in over 250 battle-related deaths.
