From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Nov 17 2009 - 17:36:39 EST
South Sudan violence kills 12, injures minister
Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:02pm GMT
JUBA, Sudan, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed and a government
minister wounded in clashes in south Sudan, which is preparing for a
referendum on whether to split off as an independent state.
A surge of ethnic violence has killed more than 2,000 people this year, the
United Nations estimates, raising fears for the stability of the
oil-producing territory which secured the referendum and a semi-autonomous
government in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil
war with the north.
The conflict, which also set southern tribe against southern tribe, left
lingering resentments in a region already riven by traditional disputes over
territory and cattle.
At least seven people were killed during an attack by fighters from the
Mundari tribe on the rival Dinka Aliap group in Awerial county in Lakes
state, officials said on Tuesday.
"There was an attack...all yesterday (Monday) night that continued to this
morning," Lakes state Information Minister Agad Chol told Reuters, adding
that it was probably in revenge for an earlier Dinka assault.
On Sunday, a vehicle carrying South Sudan's Agriculture Minister Samson
Kwaje was ambushed just after he had given a speech encouraging people in
neighbouring Central Equatoria State to take part in national elections,
said officials.
The minister was shot and five people killed, the south's Internal Affairs
Minister Gier Chuang Aloung told Reuters. Officials said the minister was
flown to Nairobi for treatment.
Aloung said the attackers were from a group that wanted the state's
Wonduruba area to remain part of Juba County.
"(They) got angered ... They strongly believe that Samson Kwaje is one of
the leaders in the area who wants Wonduruba to be annexed to Lainya
(county)," Aluong said. "It's a bad start ... This could impede the
elections," he added.
The dispute over Wonduruba is only one of several running conflicts over
land, boundaries and cattle in the south.
The peace deal promised national elections, set for April 2010, which will
be Sudan's first multi-party poll in 24 years.
The south's main party and opposition groups have called for a nationwide
two-week extension to register voters, accusing election officials of being
ill-prepared for the vote.
Some southern politicians have blamed their old civil war foes in the north
of arming militias in a bid to destabilise the region. Khartoum has
dismissed the accusation, and commentators have suggested some southern
leaders may also be using the violence to build up local support. (Reporting
by Skye Wheeler in Juba, editing by Andrew Heavens)
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