New herder-farmer clash leaves several dead in southern Chad

Clashes between herders and farmers have killed at least 10 people in southern Chad, a region regularly troubled by such violence, a local governor told AFP news agency.

The latest outbreak of violence occurred on Thursday, when a 12-year-old herder took his animals onto a farmer's peanut field, leading to an altercation that left the child dead, Adoum Forteye Amadou, the governor of the Madoul region, told AFP by telephone on Saturday.

His parents then killed nine farmers in revenge, Amadou said, adding that the incident occurred near the village of Bara II, 600 kilometres southeast of the capital of N'Djamena.

"Five herders, the authors of the killing spree, have been arrested, as well as the murderer of the young herder ," he said.

The fertile border areas of Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic have been gripped by confrontations between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers.

Tensions are historically rooted in rivalry over land.

The farmers often accuse the herders of letting their cattle trample their crops and eat them, while the herders say they have the traditional right to graze there.