South Sudan blames Khartoum for 79 cattle raid deaths

JUBA: South Sudan Monday accused its former foes in the Khartoum government of arming gunmen who killed 79 people in a cattle raid, as the U.N. warned tensions between the two sides risk regional peace.

“A militia group from Unity state penetrated into Warrap state ... and attacked people in a cattle camp,” said Interior Minister Alison Manani Magaya, adding 79 people had been killed, updating an earlier toll of 40.

“This militia group was armed by the government of Khartoum,” he said, adding that “mostly women and children were killed” in the latest wave of violence in the world’s newest nation.

“More weapons are flowing in from Khartoum ... particularly Unity state and Upper Nile,” he said, referring to South Sudan’s oil-producing states.

But Sudan’s army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad denied the allegations: “We don’t have any connection to this. We never support armed opposition in South Sudan or any place.”

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July after decades of war, but both countries have since repeatedly exchanged allegations that each side backs proxy rebel forces against the other.

Oil-rich but grossly impoverished South Sudan was left awash with guns after years of conflict, and brutal tit-for-tat raids by rival ethnic groups to steal cattle from each other are common.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that a furious row over oil between the former enemies has become a major threat to regional peace and security.

Key issues unresolved at independence escalated into bitter arguments, including a row over pipeline transit fees to transport the landlocked South’s oil to port in the rump state of Sudan.

Juba said Sunday it had nearly completed a shutdown of its oil production – the fledgling nation’s top revenue source – after it accused Khartoum of stealing $815 million of its oil, and AU-mediated talks stalled.

In addition, tensions have been raised by their still undemarcated border, parts of which cut through oil fields.

AU leaders Monday were trying to encourage the rivals to seek a deal on the sidelines of the pan-African bloc’s summit in Addis Ababa.

The South’s oil-producing border state of Unity is a base for a number of rebel groups that Juba claims are backed by Khartoum to destabilize the fledgling nation by attacking civilians and laying land mines.

Magaya could not name the specific group responsible for the deadly weekend attacks, but claimed that rebel groups in Unity state were collaborating with one another.

“They took a lot of cattle with them,” he said, added that the gunmen were from the Nuer ethnic group, while those attacked were Dinka.

He said government teams had been sent to investigate and that the death toll could rise as local officials were “still counting the bodies.”

South Sudan is reeling from an explosion of ethnic violence in Jonglei state, where a militia army of up to 8,000 armed youths attacked a rival ethnic group earlier this month.