Members of the Murle ethnic group from South Sudan killed as many as 141 Ethiopian civilians in a cross-border raid in Gambella state, according to the Ethiopian government.
The heavily-armed gunmen from the Jonglei region struck early on Friday morning and mostly targeted women and children from the Nuer community, goverment spokesman Getachew Reda said by phone from Bahir Dar in Ethiopia.
Since the attack, Ethiopian forces have killed about 60 of the attackers who are believed to be operating independently of South Sudan’s military or insurgent groups, Getachew said.
“Our security forces are tracking them and whoever has done it will be held responsible,” he said. “We will continue to take action against the perpetrators wherever they go.”
South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar, who’s an ethnic Nuer, is in the region and scheduled to fly from the town of Gambella to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Monday to become vice-president of a transitional government.
The power-sharing plan is designed to end more than two years of civil war that’s killed tens of thousands of people. Previous Murle attacks have mainly involved cattle raiding and the abduction of children.
Lul Ruai Koang, a spokesman for South Sudan’s military, said his office is still considering its response to the incident when contacted by phone on Saturday.
(Updates with comment from South Sudan’s military in final paragraph.)
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