Sudan, September 06: Clashes in south Sudan have killed 25 people and wounded several more in the tense oil-rich Upper Nile, a military spokesman said on Saturday.
Heavily armed fighters attacked an ethnic Dinka settlement in Bony-Thiang, north of the state capital Malakal, this morning, said Major General Kuol Diem Kuol, of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“They killed 20, including the paramount chief, his two wives and three children, and wounded many more,” said Kuol.
“They have burnt down the village and destroyed all the huts, and they have stolen very many cattle.”
Angry Dinka groups then carried out a retaliatory raid on the nearby Shilluk village of Bon, killing five including a woman and two children, Kuol said.
Kuol said the gunmen, who came from the Shilluk ethnic group, were a militia backed by a splinter from the south’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, known as SPLM Democratic Change (SPLM-DC).
The force was led by a former SPLA colonel who worked for a wildlife unit before deserting his post, Kuol claimed.
—Agencies