Report: 24 killed in South Sudan tribal violence

KHARTOUM, Sudan — An attack on a southern Sudan village has left 24 people dead, including a tribal chief, his three wives and several children, while dozens were wounded, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The incident was the latest in a rising wave of tribal violence in South Sudan that has killed more than 2,000 people, including many women and children, and displaced another 250,000, according to the U.N.

About 50 armed and masked men in military uniform on Friday stormed the southern village of Pigwrithiang belonging to the Dinka tribe, according to the daily Ajras al Huria, or Freedom Bells in Arabic. The village lies near the town of Malakal, about 400 miles (645 kilometers) south of the capital, Khartoum.

The victims were all Dinka, the newspaper said, citing unnamed eyewitnesses who described the attack as a “massacre.” They said the attackers specifically targeted the tribal chief’s household. The villagers did not put up a resistance, the report said.

The flare-up among southern tribes has its roots in territorial claims or cattle theft. The violence is separate from the six-year-old conflict between rebels and government forces in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan.

Last week, an attack by Lou-Nuer tribesmen on another Dinka village in the south’s Twic East County left 46 people dead and 15 severely wounded, according to U.N. reports.

The escalation in the south has raised concerns that tribal fighting could derail preparations for national and presidential elections due in April 2010. The elections are required under the 2005 peace deal that ended the north-south civil war. Sudan is also scheduled to hold a referendum in Jan. 2011 on whether South Sudan should become independent.

It was unclear what had triggered Friday’s attack. The area is historically known to belong to the Shuluk tribal group, the second largest tribe in southern Sudan after the Dinka. It was also unclear whether the attackers were tribesmen and their uniforms were indistinguishable, the report said.

Government officials in Khartoum declined to comment while local officials in the south said they would later issue a statement. Military reinforcements were sent to the area to prevent a further escalation, the daily said.

South Sudan is still grappling with the legacy of one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil wars. The two-decade battle between ethnic African southerners and Sudan’s Arab-dominated government in the northern capital, Khartoum, killed an estimated 2 million people.

Tension between heavily armed southern tribes has been compounded by competition for scarce water and pasturage. Clashes reignited earlier this year and intensified beyond traditional cattle raids to include attacks on civilians across the entire south.