47 dead in S Sudan clashes
2009-11-18 17:18
Khartoum - A tribal clash in southern Sudan has killed 47 people and wounded 16, a UN radio reported, the latest incident in a region still grappling with the legacy of one of Africa's longest and bloodiest civil wars.
The Web site of the UN-funded Miraya FM radio on Tuesday quoted a local official of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, Dut Malual Chaoc, as saying that Mundari tribesmen attacked two cattle camps belonging to the Dinka tribe.
The Monday morning attack left 47 dead and 16 wounded, and disrupted an ongoing voter registration process and road construction in the area, the radio said. The report provided no other details.
The rising wave of tribal violence in recent months in South Sudan has killed more than 2 000 people, including many women and children, and displaced another 250 000, according to the United Nations.
The escalation has raised concerns that tribal fighting could derail preparations for Sudan's national and presidential elections due in April 2010. The elections are required under the 2005 peace deal that ended the north-south civil war.
Traditional cattle raids
Sudan is also scheduled to hold a referendum in January 2011 on whether South Sudan should become independent.
The two-decade battle between ethnic African southerners and Sudan's Arab-dominated government in the northern capital, Khartoum, killed an estimated 2 million people.
Tension between heavily armed southern tribes has been compounded by competition for scarce water and pasturage. Clashes reignited earlier this year and intensified beyond traditional cattle raids to include attacks on civilians across the entire south.
In other developments, the South Sudan government condemned the recent ambush by gunmen of its Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Samson Kwaje who was attacked in the in Wonduruba area. Kwaje sustained a minor gunshot wound to the arm was flown on Monday to Kenya for treatment.
- AP