JUBA, Aug 28 (Reuters) – At least 49 people were killed and 33 wounded in South Sudan after armed cattle raiders from Unity State in the country’s north attacked a community of herders in neighbouring Warrap State at dawn on Thursday, officials said.
• Inter-tribal and inter-communal violence is common in South Sudan, where herders compete with each other for scarce grazing lands and water for their cattle. An abundance of guns in civilian hands in the country exacerbates the violence.
• The deadly raid in Warrap State started at about 5 a.m. local time on Thursday when assailants from Unity State and others carried out “a brutal attack” on a camp of cattle herders in Tonj North county, the state’s information minister, William Wol Mayom Bol, said in a statement.
• He expressed condolences to the families of the victims and appealed “for restraint as the two state governments establish cooperation to bring culprits to book”.
• Unity State’s information minister, Nyakenya Johannes, told Reuters the attackers were not all from Unity, but added that state officials were working hard to ensure peaceful co-existence between communities in both regions.
• South Sudan expects to hold a presidential election in December, its first since the country gained independence from its northern neighbour Sudan in 2011.
(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Helen Popper)
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