At least 60 people have been killed and dozens wounded in battles over livestock in South Sudan, local officials said on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks between rival communities.
Battles over cattle between rival factions of the Dinka people, the Rup and Pakam clans, broke out on December 6 in the central area of Western Lakes, some 250km northwest of the capital Juba.
“More than 60 people were killed, and dozens wounded,” Akol Paul Kordit, a local MP who also serves as the country’s deputy information minister, wrote in a statement.
Fighting continued with the latest raid at dawn on Friday, it said.
Presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny confirmed the “senseless” attacks, and said security chiefs had been summoned to a meeting on the violence.
“We condemn it in the strongest terms possible,” he said.
Such attacks have worsed amidst the breakdown of society during the four-year civil war which began in December 2013.
Half the country is in need of emergency food and a third has been forced from their homes since then, according to the UN.
Source: AFP
