UN Says South Sudan Cattle Raid Reportedly Kills 600 People
At least 600 people were reportedly killed and as many as 985 injured in South Sudan during a cattle raid, said the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the newly independent nation, Hilde F. Johnson.
The violence took place on Aug. 18 when members of the Murle ethnic group attacked three villages of the Lou Nuer community in Uror county in Jonglei state, Johnson said today by phone from South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
The incident “was the first large-scale attack” since the July 9 independence of South Sudan, she said. “This is part of a cycle of violence unfortunately reaching beyond cattle raiding.”
This year has been the most violent in South Sudan since the end of a two-decade civil war with the north in 2005, with 2,368 civilians dying in rebel attacks and ethnic violence, including cattle raids, as of July 9, compared with 940 last year, according to the UN.
The UN is receiving reports that 250,000 people fled their homes and 30,000 head of cattle were stolen, Johnson said. About 200 people may have been kidnapped, the peacekeeping mission said in an e-mailed statement today.
Women, Children Missing
“A number of children and women are still missing,” Jonglei state Governor Kuol Manyang said today by phone from Bor, the state capital. “We don’t know if they were abducted or if they’re hiding in the forest.”
South Sudan gained control of about 375,000 barrels of oil per day from the former Sudan’s daily production of 490,000 barrels. Paris-based Total SA owns 32.5 percent of the unexplored Block B, located in Jonglei and Lakes states.
The violence in Jonglei was the result of retaliation for a previous attack by the Lou Nuer group on Murle communities in late June, before South Sudan’s independence, Johnson said.
Johnson described the incident as a ”higher level of escalation compared to previous attacks”, as it focused on the Lou Nuer’s spiritual leader. “The risk is the escalation may be retaliated.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum at mmazen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
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