At least 42 people have been killed and 10 injured in fighting between rival ethnic groups in eastern Chad in a conflict that began as a dispute over a water well, officials say.

The conflict in Wadi Fira province, initially between two families, is said to have escalated into a cycle of reprisal attacks that spread over a wide area, with villages burned down.

Chadian authorities said on Sunday that a delegation led by deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat had been sent to the area and the situation had been brought under control.

Deadly communal clashes are common in the central African nation, with a long-running pattern of disputes between farmers and herders, as well as ethnic tensions.

The clashes are often triggered by competition over water and grazing land.

The arrival of refugees fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Sudan in recent months has further raised tensions over resources and security.

On Sunday, the deputy prime minister said the government was taking all necessary measures to prevent the conflict in Sudan from destabilising the border area.

Communal clashes in Chad have led to the death of hundreds of people in recent years, including 33 killed in November over a disputed well in Dibebe, in the south-west.

According to the International Crisis Group think-tank, 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured in about 100 clashes between 2021 and 2024.

Rights Group Amnesty International last year said it had documented seven episodes of herder-farmer violence between 2022 and 2024, resulting in 98 deaths.

It said the clashes were driven by climate change and other issues, and that despite the recurring violence, authorities had failed to adequately protect the population.

Amnesty said responses by security forces were often delayed and perpetrators were not being held to account "fuelling a sense of impunity and marginalisation within communities". (BBC)