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| Africa Horn |
| UN: 100s thought dead in South Sudan |
| 2012-01-04 |
| [Iran Press TV] The United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... says days of festivities between rival tribes in the east of South Sudan may have left up to hundreds of people dead. According to the UN sources, on Monday, around 6,000 fighters of the Lou Nuer ethnic group attacked the remote town of Pibor in the troubled Jonglei state after days of festivities with the rival Murle tribe over cattle rustling. South Sudan has sent military reinforcements to the town to curb the inter-ethnic violence. Describing the humanitarian situation in the region 'grim,' the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Lise Grande said on Tuesday that the tribal conflict might have left 'tens, perhaps hundreds' dead. Grande said the UN peacekeepers and government troops had succeeded on Tuesday in repelling the attacks. Tens of thousands of civilians are said to have decamped Pibor and nearby towns over the recent days to escape the violence. Over the last several years, the two tribes have traded violent attacks that have killed thousands. South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011 after decades of conflict with Sudan, which claimed the lives of over 1.5 million people. A historic peace agreement signed in 2005 paved the way for a independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously in favor of having a state of their own. The new oil-rich state is one of the least developed ones in the world, where one in every seven children dies before reaching the age of five. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "We don't cotton to cattle rustlin' in these here parts, you sidewinders." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-04 09:25 |