From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 11 2009 - 17:03:01 EDT
Thirty dead in southern Sudan tribal fighting
Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:24pm GMT
KHARTOUM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - At least 30 people have been killed in southern
Sudan's remote Warrap State in an apparent resurgence of a long-running
tribal feud, a government official said on Tuesday.
The attack on Sunday on the Awan sub-clan of the south's Dinka tribe is the
latest outburst of violence in the region that may have killed more than
1,000 people this year and threatens a fragile peace established after
Sudan's 2005 north-south peace deal.
"We have not yet confirmed the wounded but 30 people were killed," James
Kueth, who is in charge of emergency response in the government South Sudan
Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, told Reuters.
Many huts were burned to the ground in the attack in Tonj East County of
Warrap State and all of the dead were Awan, Kueth said.
The attackers were from the Luac Jang clan of the Dinka tribe -- the south's
largest ethnic group -- which Kueth said has been engaged in reciprocal
cattle rustling and counter-attacks with the Awan for many years.
He said a United Nations team will visit the area on Wednesday to ascertain
the numbers wounded and displaced.
Sudan's 22-year north-south war, over racial and political differences, left
many southern communities heavily armed.
Inter-tribal and inter-clan fighting is common during the south's dry season
but the death tolls this year in the south's Jonglei State have not been
seen since the civil war.
Earlier this month 185 people, mostly women and children, were killed close
to Akobo town in Jonglei. Aid workers visiting the area afterwards described
scenes of carnage, with many bodies still on the ground.
The south's President Salva Kiir has said the level of violence is rising as
part of an attempt to discredit the region's ability to maintain stability
ahead of a 2011 vote on secession for the south.
(Reporting by Skye Wheeler; editing by Michael Roddy)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----