CAIRO: Up to 12 people were killed in a gunfight between members of two tribes from a southern Egyptian village sparked by a long-running row over land ownership, security sources said yesterday.
The fighting erupted on Saturday evening over which of the two tribes owned a piece of agricultural land near Al-Hikma village in Egypt’s southern Aswan province, the sources said. Security forces imposed a curfew on the village, the sources added.
Police and soldiers moved in with armored vehicles to end the fighting, he said. Many people own weapons in rural Egypt. Violent clashes have erupted in the past, but analysts say a breakdown of law and order since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year has contributed to such flare-ups since then.
Egypt village land row sparks fight, 12 dead
