Scores feared dead in South Sudan tribal clashes

Nairobi: Thousands of villagers in South Sudan hid in the bush on Monday, waiting for UN and government troops to stop a cattle vendetta which officials feared may have left scores of people dead over the last week.

A column of some 6,000 armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe marched on the remote town of Pibor in troubled Jonglei state, home to the rival Murle people, who they blame for cattle raiding and have vowed to exterminate.

They burned thatched huts and looted a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, the worst flare-up in a dispute that has already left more than 1,000 dead in recent months and threatened to destabilise the six-month-old country.

"The situation is tense as the Lou Nuer are still around Pibor," said Jonglei state information minister Isaac Ajiba, adding that army reinforcements were still on their way to the remote settlement.

Beefing up

"They [the army] are yet to arrive, but we hope to have the reinforcements there soon... We have reports of several casualties, but at present the exact numbers are not verified," Ajiba added.

The government and the United Nations — which has warned the violence could lead to a "major tragedy" — were beefing up their forces in the area.

UN peacekeepers were on high alert and working to evacuate the most vulnerable civilians from the area. Reverend Mark Akec Cien, general secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches, an umbrella organisation with members across the area, said they had reports of many killed and wounded in the clashes.

‘Heavy casualties'

"The situation is very bad, there have been heavy casualties, and the Murle have fled out of the town," Cien said from South Sudan's capital Juba, adding that some gunmen were reportedly chasing those running away.

"The Lou Nuer are there in the town, but others have left chasing after the Murle," he added.

More than 30 people were killed in Lukangol, some 30 kilometres north of Pibor where Lou Nuer fighters attacked last week, burning the settlement to the ground, Cien said, quoting reports from the ground.