Situation 'grim' in parts of South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The humanitarian situation in one of South Sudan's states is grim after ethnic fighters withdrew from a ransacked city, a U.N. official said.

The United Nations expressed alarm over the security situation in Jonglei state. U.N. officials said this week that peacekeepers and national security forces were outnumbered by fighters with the Lou Nuer ethnic group.

Lise Grande, a U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan said "perhaps" hundreds of people were killed during clashes in and around the town of Pibor. Peacekeepers with the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, she said, managed to deter a major escalation of violence.

"The focus of the United Nations now is in tracking the (Lou Nuer) column as it goes back and in providing emergency assistance to the people in Jonglei who need it the most," she said.

Grande said the fighters had left the area and the situation in the region was more stable than before tensions escalated last month.

While this was a positive step, she said, nobody expects an immediate end to hostilities in South Sudan.

"The situation on the ground now, in humanitarian terms, is grim," she added.

South Sudan became an independent nation in July as part of a 2005 peace agreement with Sudan. Border conflicts, ethnic tensions and disputes over oil threaten to unravel the peace.