A heavy Sudanese troop presence helped restore calm yesterday in the Darfur region, local sources said, after three days of inter-ethnic violence which claimed at least 155 lives and displaced tens of thousands.  

The transitional government in the capital Khartoum has deployed military units to the remote region, where the recent end of a joint United Nation and African Union peacekeeping mission raised fears of more bloodshed.

Violence erupted Saturday between Arab nomads and members of the non-Arab Massalit ethnic group in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing at least 100 people and wounding more than 130, said state governor Mohamed Abdalla al-Douma.

The clashes prompted some 50,000 people to flee areas in and around a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) who were driven from their homes in previous conflicts, said aid group Save the Children.

Authorities in West Darfur have imposed a statewide curfew as troops arrived there from Khartoum and other parts of Sudan to restore order.

"There have been no clashes since Sunday, but there were incidents of looting, especially of houses and farms of people living at the Kerindig IDP camp," Douma told AFP.

Separate clashes on Monday in South Darfur between members of the Fallata ethnic group and the Arab Rizeigat tribe killed at least 55 people and wounded 37.

In 2003, conflict in f Darfur killed some 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million. It had flared when ethnic minority rebels rose up against dictator Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government. Khartoum responded by unleashing a notorious Arab-dominated militia.

The latest violence came after the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission, UNAMID, ended its 13 years of operations in Darfur on December 31.