The United Nations on Wednesday said it ”strongly condemns” the weekend attack on a village in south Sudan that left 100 people dead.
It also expressed ”mounting concern” about the ”escalating violence” in the vast region as the country heads towards an April 2010 national election and a referendum scheduled for 2011 in southern Sudan.
Tribesmen from the Lou Nuer ethnic group raided the Dinka Hol village of Duk Padiet in Jonglei state on Sunday morning, forcing a company of Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers based there to flee.
”The United Nations Mission in Sudan (Unmis) strongly condemns the attack on the residents of Duk Padiet village,” the peacekeeping body said in a statement.
”This latest loss of life comes on the heels of a similar attack on residents of the village of Wernyol in August that also claimed the lives of dozens of civilians, and it appears to fit into a pattern of escalating violence in various parts of southern Sudan since the year began,” it said.
Some recent attacks have deliberately targeted women and children and have had little or nothing to do with cattle rustling, a traditional cause of violence between neighbouring tribes and ethnic groups in the region, the statement added.
Unmis said there may be elements that are directing attacks against state institutions, and the UN body urged the South Sudan government to further strengthen efforts to identify and try the people responsible.
More than 2 000 people have died and 250 000 been displaced in inter-tribal violence across the south since January, according to UN figures, with the rate of violent deaths now exceeding that of war-torn Darfur in west Sudan. — AFP
