KHARTOUM, (Reuters) – At least 40 south Sudanese soldiers and civilians were killed when tribal fighters ambushed river barges carrying U.N. food aid, in the latest in a string of ethnic attacks, officials said yesterday.
Armed members of the Jikany Nuer group opened fire on 27 boats loaded with emergency rations destined for an area controlled by the rival Lou Nuer tribe on Friday afternoon, the U.N. World Food Programme said.
Hundreds have been killed and more than 135,000 displaced in south Sudan in 2009 in a surge of tribal killings rooted it long-standing feuds over cattle but aggravated by political discontent and weapons left over from two decades of civil war.
The minister of information for Upper Nile State Thon Mom told Reuters Friday’s attack killed at least 40 people including troops from the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) who were escorting the convoy.
“Women and children who were on the boats were also killed, either directly by bullets or by drowning after jumping into the river,” said SPLA spokesman Malaak Ayuen Ajok.
He said the Jikany Nuer fighters had first demanded to search some of the barges, south of the settlement of Nasir on the Sobat river, suspecting they were carrying arms and ammunition to their Lou Nuer enemy.
They searched one, finding only sorghum and other rations, but opened fire when the rest of the convoy continued on its journey, he added.
