Clashes between rival groups in central South Sudan leave scores dead

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Clashes last week between armed groups from rival communities in the central part of South Sudan left scores of people dead and overwhelmed a hospital with wounded people, officials said.

The fighting swept through the Rumbek area of Lakes state on Friday as government soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers tried to maintain order. South Sudan's Information Ministry said that about 70 people were killed, including four soldiers, but that the exact toll had yet to be verified.

“We were overwhelmed with the gunshot patients,” Teran Madit, a clinical officer at Rumbek State Hospital, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. He said the hospital received more than 50 wounded people, most with chest injuries.

The fighting involved armed youths from the Pakam community in Rumbek North County fighting against armed youths of the Nyang community in Rumbek Central County, both part of the Dinka ethnic group.

Disputes over cattle and grazing land, along with revenge killings, have fueled repeated violence in Lakes state, but the immediate cause of Friday’s clashes was unclear. South Sudanese analyst Machot Amuom said unresolved tensions between the communities had left the area vulnerable to renewed violence.

“There were buried tensions and everybody knew that this could flare up, because the root causes of the violence between these communities were never addressed,” he said.

Madit, who operated on seven patients at Rumbek State Hospital on Friday, described scenes of chaos there. Some patients who came to seek treatment left again amid rumors that they could be killed at the hospital.

Daniel Laat Kon, who heads the Lakes state branch of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a South Sudanese civil society group, said he was among thousands of residents of the area who fled as gunfire erupted early Friday.

“The security forces tried their level best, but they were outnumbered by the armed youths,” he said.

Kon said soldiers were killed trying to repel the attackers. He returned home after the attackers withdrew that afternoon, he said.

The government said Friday that troops and police had brought Rumbek under control. Security forces arrested four armed civilians and recovered four firearms, according to the ministry’s statement, which urged communities to avoid retaliatory attacks.

U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Friday that Nepalese peacekeepers deployed a rapid response force to “help deter the fighting and protect the local hospital and humanitarian compounds.”

The bloodshed comes as South Sudan prepares for its first national elections since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

President Salva Kiir dissolved the transitional government on Sept. 22 and appointed a caretaker administration ahead of elections scheduled for Dec. 22. His decree also dissolved the national legislature and state governments. Elections have repeatedly been delayed.

Amuom said the dissolution had contributed to the insecurity by leaving key local government posts vacant.

“The caretaker county commissioners have not yet been appointed, and the armed youths took advantage of it,” he said.

The power-sharing administration grew out of a 2018 peace agreement that ended five years of civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people died.

Kon called on the government to disarm civilians, questioning how elections could proceed amid such insecurity.

“How can we be preparing for an election, registering voters, conducting civic education, when people live in fear?” he said.