UN: 600 said killed in South Sudan cattle raids
12 min readBy JOSH KRON
Published: August 21, 2011
KAMPALA, Uganda — Tribal clashes in a region of newly independent South Sudan have killed at least 58 people in the past week, the United Nations says, raising fears of ethnic instability in the deeply impoverished country.
Hundreds more are feared to have died in fighting that broke out between members of the Nuer and Murle ethnic groups in the eastern state of Jonglei, where violence between ethnic groups has raged for years. On Thursday, members of the Murle attacked a number of villages in Uror County, burning grass-thatched huts, stealing cattle and killing or abducting local villagers known as the Lou Nuer, United Nations and local government officials said. The United Nations said it had counted 58 bodies at two sites in the area. Fighting had subsided, but the officials said they had not been able to visit all the areas where violence had been reported.
“The likelihood would be more casualties, but we are unable to verify them ourselves,” said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the United Nations in South Sudan. “Our efforts now will be focused on reconciliation between the two tribes so that we can prevent these sort of incidents from occurring in the future.”
South Sudan became independent from Sudan on July 9 after decades of civil war with the north, which is largely Arab and Muslim. While South Sudan’s ethnic groups fought in sometimes loose alliances against the north, tribal tensions have routinely bubbled over into violence.
From January to the end of June, 2,368 people have been killed in 330 episodes of violence across South Sudan, Reuters reported, citing figures released by the United Nations in July.
In a speech celebrating the country’s independence, President Salva Kiir promised amnesty to all militias and urged South Sudan’s people to forge a national identity that transcended ethnic groups. But for a country this vast and poor, that could prove difficult.
In June, just weeks before independence, members of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups, two of the country’s largest, teamed up in Jonglei State to attack the Murle there, stealing cattle and killing hundreds of people in what was said to be retaliation for attacks carried out by the Murle.
South Sudanese officials worry that the Murle attack on Thursday was in response to the events in June, and that the tit-for-tat violence could tear at the new nation’s fragile political cohesion.
The local authorities “believe between 100 and 300 people might have lost their lives,” said John Boloch Kumen, a South Sudanese official and a member of the Murle who is originally from Jonglei State. “Unless the leadership of the state takes a serious concern, there will be the vicious cycle of revenge.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/africa/22sudan.html
Toll Passes 600 in South Sudan Clashes, U.N. Says
By JOSH KRON
Published: August 22, 2011
KAMPALA, Uganda — The death toll from a cattle raid in an estranged region of weeks-old South Sudan rose significantly on Monday with the United Nations saying more than 600 people had been killed.
The fighting, a retaliatory attack last Thursday by ethnic Murle on three Nuer villages, was originally reported to have resulted in 58 deaths. But on Monday, the United Nations said the flow of information had been hampered by vast distances and poor logistics.
In a statement, the United Nations said that up to 30,000 head of cattle had been stolen and that it was investigating the possibility that as many as 200 people had been abducted, making it one of the largest attacks in recent memory. The statement called for an end to the “wanton violence” in the region.
“The casualties are very significant,” the United Nations special representative Hilde F. Johnson said in a telephone interview. “We are deeply concerned.”
Ms. Johnson said that the raids, which are part of an ongoing conflict, did not reflect political instability in the country, but that it had “deep roots.”
South Sudan became the world newest country last month when it declared independence from the north after decades of civil war. In an independence day speech to tens of thousands of residents in July, President Salva Kiir granted amnesties and envisaged a bright national future forged through national identity.
But a host of problems that have the potential for conflict remain, including disputes with the north over oil rights, border delineation and the contested region of Abyei.
Within South Sudan itself, the army lacks cohesion and the Dinka ethnic group is criticized by other groups for holding top posts in the government and army. A number of rebellions in the country continue, and the United Nations said on Monday that an alarming number of weapons was accumulating in Jonglei State, where the recent violence took place.
“There is a big gap between announcing a decision and figuring out how to implement it,” said Bruce Patton, a co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project. The “danger,” he said, “is lost momentum, disillusionment, and often lingering distrust.”
In a society where cattle are esteemed, cattle raiding has been a violent source of conflict.
In June, just weeks before independence, the Dinka and the Nuer, who have been at odds with each other, teamed up in Jonglei State to attack the Murle, killing more than 400 people and stealing thousands of cattle.
The Murle raid on the local Nuer villages in Jonglei last week was an act of retaliation, the United Nations said, and it warned that more of them could follow.
“We fear a cycle of violence that will never end,” Ms. Johnson said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/africa/23sudan.html?_r=1
UN Says South Sudan Cattle Raid Reportedly Kills 600 People
At least 600 people were reportedly killed and as many as 985 injured in South Sudan during a cattle raid, said the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the newly independent nation, Hilde F. Johnson.
The violence took place on Aug. 18 when members of the Murle ethnic group attacked three villages of the Lou Nuer community in Uror county in Jonglei state, Johnson said today by phone from South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
The incident “was the first large-scale attack” since the July 9 independence of South Sudan, she said. “This is part of a cycle of violence unfortunately reaching beyond cattle raiding.”
This year has been the most violent in South Sudan since the end of a two-decade civil war with the north in 2005, with 2,368 civilians dying in rebel attacks and ethnic violence, including cattle raids, as of July 9, compared with 940 last year, according to the UN.
The UN is receiving reports that 250,000 people fled their homes and 30,000 head of cattle were stolen, Johnson said. About 200 people may have been kidnapped, the peacekeeping mission said in an e-mailed statement today.
Women, Children Missing
“A number of children and women are still missing,” Jonglei state Governor Kuol Manyang said today by phone from Bor, the state capital. “We don’t know if they were abducted or if they’re hiding in the forest.”
South Sudan gained control of about 375,000 barrels of oil per day from the former Sudan’s daily production of 490,000 barrels. Paris-based Total SA owns 32.5 percent of the unexplored Block B, located in Jonglei and Lakes states.
The violence in Jonglei was the result of retaliation for a previous attack by the Lou Nuer group on Murle communities in late June, before South Sudan’s independence, Johnson said.
Johnson described the incident as a ”higher level of escalation compared to previous attacks”, as it focused on the Lou Nuer’s spiritual leader. “The risk is the escalation may be retaliated.”
UN: 600 said killed in South Sudan cattle raids
MAGGIE FICK, Associated Press
Updated 12:21 p.m., Monday, August 22, 2011
- In this Wednesday, July 13, 2011 photo, wearing a filthy polo shirt, ratty sandals made from old tires, and a distant, pained expression, Nyati Kelabo sits in the muddy black dirt under a tree where he said he had been sleeping since arriving in Pibor after escaping the raiding in his village, a day’s walk from Pibor, South Sudan. He said his gun was taken from him during a disarmament drive last year by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the former guerilla movement turned national army of South Sudan. Unable to protect his herd or his family, Kelabo and his two wives and five children ran for their lives, leaving the family’s cattle for the taking by raiders who he said were a “mix” of armed civilians and men in army and police uniforms. “Those people took all the cattle,” Kelabo said with anger in his voice Photo: Maggie Fick / AP
PIBOR, South Sudan (AP) — Two months after cattle raiders stole his entire herd, Nyati Kelabo stalks around this desolate river town, sleeping under a tree, begging for food and worrying constantly about how he will feed his five children and two wives.
South Sudan became the world’s newest country in July, amid high hopes that it would leave its violent past behind. A 2005 peace deal with the north ended a civil war and paved the way for January’s independence referendum.
But the new country is already reeling from internal violence — often in the form of massive cattle raids — that is devastating communities in the vast swamplands of its eastern region.
The U.N. said Monday that new clashes last week have killed as many as 600 people, and that reports suggest that between 26,000 and 30,000 cattle have been stolen. Jonglei state Gov. Kuol Manyang Juuk said eight villages were destroyed when warriors from the Murle tribe in Pibor county attacked the Lou Nuer tribe of Uror county on Thursday. Juuk estimated the death toll at 125.
Last week’s deaths bring to more than 3,000 the number of people killed in hundreds of violent incidents in South Sudan this year.
Local officials in Pibor, which was ravaged by violence in June, estimate that more than 360 members of the Murle ethnic group were killed in raids just weeks before the south declared independence. And though the tactic of child abduction was long a feature of the Murle’s raids on their rivals, the Murle now say their children are being stolen by the Nuer.
Chiefs and community leaders reported the numbers of missing to the Pibor County government, which said 73 women and children were reported missing during the June raids. They are presumed dead or abducted by the Nuer.
What was once petty violence between rival tribes seems to be spiraling into something more complex. The cattle-related violence may well have political implications for the newly independent south.
Kelabo, who is in his 50s, said he couldn’t protect his cattle or his family from the raiders when they attacked in mid-June, because he gave up his AK-47 during an army-led disarmament drive last year. He said the thieves were a mix of armed civilians and men in army and police uniforms.
In his Murle culture, cattle are virtually the sole form of capital and currency.
Without his herd, he said, “I’m getting nothing, only from begging.”
Kelabo was lucky to escape unharmed with his entire family.
Tutktuk Nyachen watched raiders shoot her 2-year-old son in the chin and steal away her older daughter during a separate June attack.
“The Nuer took her,” she said.
Officials also say the attacks are mounting in frequency and violence — compounded in part by caches of leftover weapons from a decades-long civil war that ended in 2005.
Pibor County Commissioner Akot Maze spoke of a “massive attack” in terms of the weapons used in the June raid in Nyachen’s village of Kongor. Eyewitnesses said raiders had hand grenades and heavy automatic machine guns. Some attackers wore southern army, police, wildlife and prison services uniforms, he said.
Maze estimated that thousands of raiders attacked the area in well-planned assaults over more than two weeks.
“We describe it as ethnic cleansing. They are trying to push us off this land,” he said. “The type of fighting is now completely different. … We really wonder what kind of attack this is.”
South Sudan’s poorly disciplined security forces now face the challenge of containing insecurity not only along the contested border with north Sudan, but also among South Sudan’s tribes who have not yet been made to feel that they are equal and valued citizens.
The Murle have little representation in the south’s ruling party and army, and thus little voice in the government. And now, robbed of their only source of income — their cattle — the Murle have few options.
Nyikcho Bolem, a local chief, said that even if he wanted his youth to retaliate against their neighbors, the Nuer, “most of them have had their guns taken” by the army.
“So even if they wanted to fight, they would be powerless,” he said.
As the chief spoke, the sound of war songs and whistles blowing punctuated the humid air. A hundred or so men dressed in feather headdresses and carrying wooden sticks marched through town as a crowd of barefoot children trailed behind.
“They are celebrating themselves,” a Pibor resident explained, a euphemism for preparing for battle.
South Sudan clashes kill 600, U.N. calls for talks
- Fighting in South Sudan reportedly left at least 600 dead, at least 750 wounded
- Also at least 26,000 cattle stolen
- 2,400 people died in 330 clashes across South Sudan, in first 6 months of 2011
- Most of the clashes are over cattle rustling incidents
(CNN) — The U.N. on Monday called for reconciliation in the newly-established Republic of South Sudan after fighting reportedly left at least 600 dead and at least 26,000 cattle stolen.
The Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General, Hilde F. Johnson urged restraint Monday after fighting between the Murle and Lou Nuer communities in Jonglei State, killed at least 600 and left more than 750 wounded.
Clashes broke out early Thursday morning and lasted through the day, South Sudan authorities reported. The U.N. on Friday dispatched an assessment and verification team to two of the conflict areas.
The team found 28 casualties at one site and 30 at another along with a number of huts burned to the ground, said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
The violence occurred when members of the Murle tribe attacked villages of the Lou Nuer, Siddique said.
Though the violence had largely stopped, reconciliation efforts were needed to maintain the peace, he said.
“Peaceful dialogue is the primary means for reconciliation, and the tribal leaders need to sit down and work out their differences.”
Between January and the end of June 2011, nearly 2,400 people had died in 330 clashes across South Sudan, according to a July U.N. report. Most of these casualties resulted from cattle rustling incidents in Jonglei State’s Pibor County.
Cattle rustling is a main source of insecurity in South Sudan as cows represent wealth and social status, and are used as “blood money” or compensation and payment of dowries. According to a 2009 report by the International Crisis Group, “Sticks and spears have historically been used to carry out rustling and the violent disputes it often causes. However, the proliferation of small arms … changed the nature of this practice, making raiding far more deadly.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/22/southern.sudan.attack.reconciliation/?hpt=T2
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
UNITED NATIONS — At least 600 people were killed and up to 985 people injured in tribal clashes in the new country of South Sudan, the United Nations said Monday.
The violence erupted Thursday in Jonglei state and the UN mission to South Sudan reported the death toll, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
South Sudan became independent from Sudan on July 5 to much international fanfare, but diplomats have expressed mounting concerns about stability in the country and tensions with the Khartoum government.
A UN team has been sent to Jonglei and the head of the UN mission to South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, has appealed for restraint.
Jonglei Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk said Friday that women and children were among the dead and that the fighting started in Bier sub-county.
He said Murle tribe members were suspected of attacking five villages of the Lou Nuer tribe in Bier. He said cattle had been stolen and some women and children abducted.
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