Residents of a swampy area in central South Sudan battled with cattle herders who moved in looking for water and pasture during the dry season, with at least 38 people killed and 52 sustaining gunshot wounds, officials said on Thursday.
The fighting started on Wednesday and tensions remained high on Thursday night, with officials reporting “minor clashes” and apprehension over revenge attacks in the remote area.
Warrap State Minister of Information William Wol Mayom said that fighting took place in the Alor area, which is in Lakes State and borders Warrap and Unity states.
Mayom said that security forces had been sent to calm the situation and to move the cattle herders away from the disputed wetlands.
“The violence has been de-escalated, but minor clashes are still being reported in inaccessible swampy areas and casualties cannot be fully verified,” Mayom said.
Lakes State police spokesman Major Elijah Mabor Makuach said that 19 of those who were killed and 17 of those wounded were civilians from Warrap, and 19 of the dead and 35 of the wounded were from Lakes.
Young herders from Warrap migrated to the Alor area with their cattle two weeks ago, and began burning brush and the temporary shelters of residents, Makuach said
The herders were looking for pasture and water in the swampy lands of Alor, he said.
The bloodshed came four days after at least 52 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed and 64 wounded by gunmen who attacked villagers in Abyei, an oil-rich region that is claimed by Sudan and South Sudan.
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