Over 3,000 people were killed in South Sudan in brutal massacres last week in an explosion of ethnic violence that forced tens of thousands to flee, the top local official in the affected area said Friday.
"There have been mass killings, a massacre," said Joshua Konyi, commissioner for Pibor county in Jonglei state.
"We have been out counting the bodies, and we calculate so far that 2,182 women and children were killed and 959 men died."
United Nations and South Sudanese army officials have yet to confirm the death tolls and the claims from the remote region could not be independently verified.
If confirmed, the killings of 3,141 people would be the worst outbreak of ethnic violence ever seen in the fledgling nation, which split from Sudan in July.
A column of some 6,000 rampaging armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe last week marched on the remote town of Pibor, home to the rival Murle people, whom they blame for abductions and cattle raiding and have vowed to exterminate.
The Lou Nuer gunmen attacked Pibor at the weekend, torching huts and looting a hospital, and only withdrew after government troops opened fire.
Over a thousand children are missing, feared abducted, while tens of thousands of cows were stolen, added Konyi, who comes from the Murle ethnic group.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Lise Grande, said earlier this week that she feared "tens, perhaps hundreds" could have died.
"Yes, there have been casualties, but we don't have the details, and can't at present confirm what the commissioner reports," said Jonglei state information minister Isaac Ajiba.
"We are awaiting reports from our (military) forces on the ground," said South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer. "For the assessment to be credible they must have gone into the villages to count all the bodies."
South Sudan has declared Jonglei state a national "disaster area" according to the official government website, while the UN has warned a "massive emergency operation" is needed to help those uprooted by the violence.
Both ethnic groups must "return all the abducted women and children of both sides and reunite them with their communities," the government added.
Lou Nuer fighters are now returning homewards, after the army and UN peacekeepers beefed up reinforcements in Pibor, while the World Food Programme
(WFP) has flown in emergency rations to support the thousands displaced.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF - Medecins Sans Frontieres), the main healthcare provider for the estimated 160,000 people in Pibor county, has temporarily suspended its operations after the clashes forced them to evacuate staff.
Newly independent South Sudan was left in ruins by decades of war with northern Sudanese forces, who fuelled conflict by backing proxy militia forces across the south, often exacerbating historical enmities between rival groups.
Ethnic violence, cattle raids and reprisal attacks in the vast eastern state left over 1,100 people dead and forced some 63,000 from their homes last year, according to UN reports based on local authorities and assessment teams.
The deaths include violence last August, when at least 600 people were killed and up to 985 people injured after Murle gunmen attacked Lou Nuer villages in Jonglei. (AFP)
<한글 기사>
南수단서 '소떼 공격했다고 3천명 학살'
지난주 남수단에서 발생한 종족분쟁으로 3000명 이상이 학살됐다고 한 고위 관리의 말을 인용해 AFP통신이 보도했다.
남수단이 지난해 7월 수단으로부터 독립한 이래 최악의 종족 분쟁이라고 외신들은 전했다.
무장한 로우 누에르족 6천명의 청년들이 경쟁 부족인 무를레족이 자신들의 동족을 유괴하고 소떼를 공격했다며 마을 주민들을 살해했다.
이로 인해 959명의 남성과 2182명의 여성과 아이들이 숨졌다고.
또한 천명의 아이들이 실종되었고, 수만 마리의 소떼도 도둑맞았다고 현지인의 말을 인용해 외신들이 전했다.
지난해 남수단에서는 종족분쟁과 목초지를 둘러싼 영역 다툼으로1100명이 사망하고, 6만3000명이 집을 잃었다.
