Sudan ? More than 200 people have died in clashes between ethnic African farmers and nomadic Arabs in South Darfur in the past week, leading the Sudanese government to send emissaries to try to reconcile the tribes involved, officials said Saturday.

The fighting was the latest outburst in a nearly four-year-long conflict that has caused more than 200,000 deaths and chased 2.5 million people from their homes in Sudan’s vast Darfur region, where nomadic tribes and farming communities have long wrangled over access to water.

The war began when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in February 2003, charging it with neglect. The Khartoum regime is accused of responding by unleashing Arab paramilitary groups known as janjaweed that have been blamed for the worst atrocities in the conflict.