Dozens dead in shootout at South Sudan peace meeting

JUBA (AFP) - Dozens of people were killed in South Sudan in a shootout at a peace meeting to resolve disputes about stolen cattle, with some reports claiming as many as 37 deaths, officials said Friday.

"These guys just started shooting everywhere," said Gideon Gatpan Thoar, Unity state information minister, giving the figure of 37 people killed in Wednesday's gunfight.

Local officials from Unity and neighbouring Lakes and Warrap states had been taken by the UN for talks to the remote town of Mayendit in Unity after a spate of cattle raids, including a brutal attack last week that killed 79 people.

"The fight just started there and no one knew the cause," said Lakes state governor Chol Tong Mayay, after gathering accounts from witnesses. "People were just shooting at each other, without knowing whose police and army they were."

Gunmen, reportedly including rival bodyguards, policemen, soldiers and armed government wildlife officers, sprayed the meeting room with bullets in the battle.

What exactly prompted the fight was not known, but United Nations peacekeepers said it erupted after one official interrupted the meeting and shouted at a counterpart.

Mayay said 22 people from Lakes state were killed and 24 wounded, but he did not know how many were killed from the two other states.

"Four pick-up trucks carrying armed men believed to be SPLA (army) and SSPS (police) then appeared and started shooting indiscriminately at the Mayendit County Commissioner's compound," the UN said, without giving a toll.

At least 15 people with gunshot wounds had been taken to a clinic in Unity state run by Doctors Without Borders, the medical aid agency said.

A staff member with the UN peacekeeping mission was wounded in the crossfire, while a wildlife service office was later torched in Lakes state, local officials said.

South Sudan -- which declared independence from Sudan, its former civil war enemy to the north, in July -- is reeling from multiple crises, including ethnic clashes, violent cattle raids and rebel attacks.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos on Thursday voiced concern at the scale of violence after visiting war-wracked regions.

Last month, a militia army of up to 8,000 armed youths attacked a rival ethnic group in Jonglei state, with aid workers reporting horrific massacres, including babies beaten against trees and women hacked by machetes.

Juba is also embroiled in a furious row over oil pipeline transit and shipping fees with Khartoum.

South Sudan has said it has completed a shutdown of its oil production -- the fledgling nation's top revenue source -- after it accused Sudan of stealing $815 million of its oil and African Union-mediated talks stalled.