South Sudan Militia Kills 50 in Clashes

Ethnic clashes in South Sudan flared up again, with gunmen killing at least 50 people in the restive state of Jonglei.
South Sudan Militia Kills 50 in Clashes
People wait for food distribution in Pibor, in South Sudan's Jonglei state on January 12, 2012. The UN says that it has registered over 2,000 people that have fled here from a wave of tribal violence between the Murle and Nuer. (Hannah McNeish/AFP/Getty Images)
1/17/2012
Updated:
10/1/2015
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Ethnic clashes in South Sudan flared up again, with gunmen killing at least 50 people in the restive state of Jonglei, according to media reports.

On Monday, armed gunmen overcame “the few policemen in” the town of Duk Padiet and burned the whole village down, Jonglei State Gov. Kuol Manyang told the Sudan Tribune. He added that many women and children were also abducted.

Manyang said the attack was carried out by the rival Murle community.

Meanwhile, Duk County Commissioner Mochnom Wuor said the attack came as “a surprise” and he fled the scene, adding that it was “completely” burned to the ground, according to the Tribune. 

Sources told the newspaper that Padiet was under Murle control until early Tuesday morning.

Philip Thon Leek Deng, a local member of Parliament, told AFP that the town “was attacked by people positively identified as the Murle armed youth.”

The attack appears to be in retaliation to an attack carried out by the rival Lou Nuer ethnic group last month, in which thousands of tribal militiamen raided and burned the town of Pibor. 

Since this summer, the two ethnic groups had carried out attacks on one another over abductions and cattle raids.

But in this incident, the Murle “did not take cattle ... they are only coming for annihilation,” Deng added.