UN Official Wounded at Meeting to Reconcile South Sudan Tribes

A United Nations official was wounded while trying to mediate an end to fighting between two ethnic groups in South Sudan’s Warrap state that killed 78 people, mostly women and children, and wounded 72, the UN said.

A team of UN officials had to be evacuated after they came under fire during the meeting on Feb. 1 in the adjacent Unity state, Lise Grande, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, told reporters yesterday from the capital, Juba.

The wounded UN official is “fine,” Grande said, adding that the UN will continue to support reconciliation efforts in the wake of the attack.

More than 70,000 head of cattle were stolen during the attack last week, leaving about 40,000 people without a livelihood, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said today in an e-mailed statement from Geneva.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jared Ferrie in Juba, South Sudan at jferrie1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net