Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has asked Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to intervene after clashes near Tripoli in which 50 Africans were reportedly killed, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Beshir sent a message to Kadhafi "asking him to intervene to address the situation," while Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail made telephone calls to a number of Libyan officials, the ministry said in a statement.
"The information so far obtained by the ministry did not firmly indicate deaths among the Sudanese community but made reference to injuries amongst its members," the ministry said in a statement.
The independent Akhbar al-Yom daily said "50 people were killed and dozens hurt in clashes between Libyans on one hand and nationals of the Chadian and Sudanese communities on the other in Zawiya."
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, which also reported 50 people had died, said "most of the victims are Chadian, while a certain number of Sudanese, probably around five people, were also killed."
The foreign ministry here gave no overall death toll but said "regrettable" incidents had occurred between Libyans and "some different African communities" in Zawiya late last week.
The foreign ministry has kept up contacts with the Libyan authorities, via the Sudanese embassy in Tripoli and the Libyan embassy in Khartoum, to "contain the situation and be reassured of the Sudanese nationals in Libya."
It added that the Sudanese embassy in Tripoli has in the past few days been exerting "tremendous efforts" to look after Sudanese nationals living throughout Libya, the ministry said.
It promised to inform the Sudanese public of any developments.
In the Jordanian capital Amman, Libya's African Unity Minister Ali Abdel Salam Triki told AFP that "the situation in Libya is calm and the press reports are totaly baseless."
Triki said "some fights broke out among members of the Nigerian and Libyan communities" when Nigerian men tried "to tease girls," Triki said.
"The police intervened immediately and took the necessary measures and arrested those who were involved" in the fighting, he said.
Triki, who was one of the Libyan officials the Sudanese foreign ministry said was contacted by Khartoum, refused to say how many casualties were caused in the incidents.
But he insisted that none of the more than one million Chadian and Sudanese nationals living in northwestern Libya were harmed in any way -- KHARTOUM (AFP)
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