More than 70 killed in latest attacks in Jonglei
The attackers, thought to be linked to militia leader David Yau Yau, stormed the villages of Palieu and Maar in Twic East County in Jonglei State where the death toll has risen to above 1,500 since South Sudan became independent more than two years ago.
Ethnic rivalries, David Yau Yau’s insurgency and disputes over land and cattle ownership underpin extended violence in the region.
The attackers, who were dressed in green military uniforms, struck three cattle camps.”
Dau Akoi Jongkuch, Commissioner of Twic East County, blamed the militia leader David Yau Yau for the attack which killed at least 78 people and wounded 88. The attackers, who were dressed in green military uniforms, struck three cattle camps,” Dau said.
Describing the attacks as worst of all”, he said the rebels set homes ablaze and stole over 25,000 heads of cattle, valuable to the local community as traditional indicators of wealth.
An eyewitness said it was like a massacre: Civilians were shot indiscriminately, huts were burned down. Locals, with nowhere to hide, ran for safety through swampy water, where some women and children are suspected to have drowned, he said.
Large parts of the region are flooded at the moment, making it hard for the army and organised forces to respond to affected villages.
Yau Yau, a former theology student and colonel in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), rebelled after loosing a local election in 2010. In 2011, he accepted an amnesty offer by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, but last year he renewed his rebellion against Juba in his home region of Pibor. His attacks use forces largely drawn from the Murle ethnic group.
The World Food Programme (WFP), South Sudanese army and United Nations (UN) airlifted wounded people to Bor, the state capital. Medical Assistant, Deng Machol, said that one 65-years-old man was in a critical situation.
The same area was attacked three months ago, when raiders killed seven people, wounded more and then stole hundreds of cattle from the Alilei cattle camp.
South Sudan remains awash with weapons, many held by civilians and security forces accused of poor discipline.
Those are militias, they are not civilians.”
Watchdog groups have reported human rights abuses allegedly committed by the national army as they attempt to quell Yau Yau’s rebellion in the eastern region. Many Murle have been killed and others have fled to the bush amid the recent violence.
Juba officials accuse Sudan of supporting Yau Yau’s rebellion in order to block South Sudan’s plans to build an oil pipeline through Ethiopia, charges denied by Khartoum.
A senior official in the government, has said the government was in direct talks with the rebel leader in an apparent bid to end the almost two-years of conflict, which had claimed thousands of lives and forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee.
Twic East residents in Juba condemned the killing of innocent civilians, calling for the government to respond quickly: Those are militias, they are not civilians.”
