South Sudan’s army on Tuesday reclaimed control of a town destroyed in a bloody cattle vendetta that sent thousands fleeing into the bush and threatened the stability of the world’s newest state.
A column of about 6,000 armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe marched on the remote town of Pibor in troubled Jonglei state, home to the rival Murle people, whom they blame for cattle raiding and have vowed to exterminate.
“Pibor is under the full control of the government, and the Lou Nuer have been ordered to return to their homes, and they are starting to do so,” South Sudanese Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin said.
Gunmen burned thatched huts and looted a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the worst flare-up in a dispute that has left more than 1,000 dead in recent months and threatened to destabilize the fledgling nation.
John Boloch Kumen, from the government-appointed Peace and Reconciliation Commission, visited on Sunday the village of Lekongele, 30km north of Pibor as part of an assessment team.
“No single house was left, the whole town was devastated ... seven people were burned in their tukuls [thatch huts], all of them women,” Kumen said, adding that two churches, a school and a health center were razed to the ground. “What was left was only the vultures and the trees.”
The government and the UN — which has warned the ethnic violence could lead to a “major tragedy” — were beefing up their forces in the area.
Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, said “probably well over 20,000” people had fled into the bush “running for their lives and looking for safety.”
Asked about a possible death toll while speaking to correspondents at the UN via video link from Juba, she said: “I would put the number ... in the the tens, perhaps hundreds, but we don’t know.”
The “decisive” action by state troops on Monday led the Lou Nuer to pull back, she said.
“The government army shot at them. Fire was exchanged,” she said.
UN peacekeepers also moved personnel carriers behind the government perimeter.
The Lou Nuer started pulling back hours later with a large number of cattle, the envoy said.
Unconfirmed reports based on survivor accounts suggested up to 150 people, largely women and children, were hunted down and killed after fleeing Pibor town.
“There are many casualties, people that have been killed,” -Pibor Commissioner Joshua Konyi said. “We are still waiting for the reports to confirm.”
However, Benjamin stressed that the violence of the cattle vendetta would be brought under control, saying that “South Sudan is not, and will not become, some kind of Somalia.”
Just one health clinic remains to provide healthcare for 160,000 people in Pibor county, after Pibor hospital and a clinic at Lekongole run by Doctors Without Borders were looted.
Parthesarathy Rajendran, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, said that the longer people stay in the bush, the “more serious it will become for people who are injured or sick.”
“They fled in haste and have no food or water, some of them doubtless carrying wounds or injuries, and now they are on their own, hiding, beyond the reach of humanitarian assistance,” Rajendran said in a statement on Tuesday.
Doctors Without Borders have temporarily suspended their operations after the clashes forced them to evacuate staff, but remains ready to provide “emergency care as soon as possible.”
Ethnic violence, cattle raids and reprisal attacks in the vast eastern state left more than 1,100 people dead and forced 63,000 from their homes last year, according to UN reports based on local authorities and assessment teams.
Tit-for-tat cattle raiding is common in a grossly underdeveloped region awash with guns and left in ruins by decades of war with northern Sudanese forces, who fueled conflict by backing proxy militia forces across the south.
Despite disarmament efforts, guns remain common in Jonglei, an isolated and swampy state about the size of Austria and Switzerland combined, but with limited mud roads often impassable for months during heavy rains.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was