Nairobi/Khartoum  - Up to 250 people have died over the past week in tribal clashes in the restive western Sudanese province of Darfur, the peacekeeping mission in Darfur said.

The UN and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said that up to 150 people died when the Habbaniya ethnic group came under attack from the Fallata and Salamat groups in South Darfur.

Six police officers who tried to separate the warring parties were among the dead.

About 5,000 people were forced to flee their homes after their village was burned down, UNAMID said.

Another 100 were killed in fighting between subsections of the Gimir ethnic group, also in South Sudan.

UNAMID said the fight between the Gimir was related to a dispute over administrative positions while the other attack was retaliatory in nature.

While the tribal clashes are not directly related to the main ongoing conflict in Darfur, they do not help the fragile security situation there.

Many ethnic clashes are sparked by disputes over access to grazing and water sources. The Darfur conflict has seen an increase of guns into the area, making access to weapons easier and conflicts over resources more deadly.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly black tribesmen took up arms against what they call decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum.

Since then, Khartoum has been accused of using the Janjaweed militia to commit atrocities against Darfur's black population and suppress the rebels.

A faction of the Sudan Liberation Army and the Sudanese government signed the Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006, but fighting has continued as many rebel groups refused to accept the deal.

The United Nations said up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by five years of conflict. (dpa)