South Sudan’s Rival Communities in Lakes State brawl, Scores Killed

Scores of people were killed in clashes last week between armed groups of rival villages in central South Sudan, overwhelming a hospital with wounded people, officials reported. Friday fighting surged across the Rumbek area of Lakes State as government soldiers and Nepalese UN peacekeepers struggled to keep order. “We have mobilised our troops immediately to Rumbek State Hospital with the order from sector headquarters, and we will also patrol around Rumbek Town,” Lt. Col. Lekhnath Katwal, Commander of the Nepalese Army for UNMISS Rumbek, said Friday.

There are patrols in town that are running 24/7, to safeguard the movement of people and those that are displaced to come back to their respective homes,” said Mabor Deng, the Press Secretary to the Governor of Lakes States.

Around 70 people, including four troops, had been murdered, but the exact toll had not been established, South Sudan’s Information Ministry said. We saw people running with their children to save them from the people who were fighting, cause the fighting was continuing from the other side,” Mbabazi Riesty Loduma, a resident of Rumbek, told Tuesday.

The battle was between armed youths of the Pakam community in Rumbek North County and armed youths of the Nyang community in Rumbek Central County, both of whom are members of the Dinka ethnic group. It was not clear what triggered Friday’s fighting, but cattle-related disputes and revenge killings have been behind recurring unrest in Lakes State.

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