185 killed in Sudan tribal violence

ARMED tribesmen attacked a fishing village in south-east Sudan where hundreds of displaced people were camped near a river, leaving at least 185 people, most of them women and children, dead in the worst violence in three months, a southern Sudan official said yesterday.

Tribal clashes in south Sudan over cattle and territory has left more than 1,000 people killed so far this year.

The violence is separate from the six-year-old conflict between rebels and government forces in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan.

UN and local officials expressed concern that the violence in the south could hamper preparation for national and presidential elections scheduled for April 2010. The elections are a key component of a deal that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan’s north and south in 2005.

Local Commissioner Goi Yol of Akobo County said a “huge” number of armed men attacked a makeshift village at dawn on Sunday where families from the Lou-Nuer tribe moved in recent weeks in search of food. The camping area overlooks the Geni River, near the Ethiopian border, in Jongeli state.

Yol blamed the attack on the rival Murle tribe, who have refused to observe a ceasefire after a series of attacks earlier this year.

Two dozen soldiers who were stationed near the camp to protect the displaced families were overpowered and a dozen of them were killed.