Khartoum, Jan 18 (IANS): At least 83 people were killed and 160 others injured in an attack that took place at El Geneina, capital city of Sudan's West Darfur state, according to authorities.

"The death toll from the bloody events in El Geneina has climbed to 83 and the injured to 160 since Saturday," Xinhua news agency quoted the Doctors' Committee of West Darfur state as saying in a statement on Sunday.

In the meantime, Sudan's Security and Defense Council on Sunday decided to send security reinforcements to West Darfur to protect the citizens and vital utilities there, according to a statement by Sudan's Sovereign Council.

The council, chaired by the Chairman of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the violent events which took place in El Geneina on Saturday, the statement noted.

The council, which brings in its membership representatives from the sovereign council, the cabinet and the security bodies, also decided to form a higher committee to investigate into El Geneina events, determine the root-causes of the problem and submit recommendations about it, bring the outlaws to trial and hold the perpetrators accountable, it added.

On Saturday, local authorities in West Darfur imposed a curfew in the wake of the incidents.

West Darfur State's Governor Mohamed Abdalla Al Doma decided to designate the regular forces to end the violence started by a fight between two citizens in El Geneina, in which one of them was killed.