JUBA: At least 60 people have been killed and dozens wounded in battles over livestock in South Sudan, local officials said Friday, the latest in a series of attacks between rival communities.
Battles over cattle between rival factions of the Dinka people, the Rup and Pakam clans, broke out on Dec. 6 in the central area of Western Lakes, some 250 km northwest of the capital Juba.
“More than 60 people were killed, and dozens wounded,” Akol Paul Kordit, a local MP who also serves as the country’s deputy information minister, wrote in a statement.
Fighting continued with the latest raid at dawn on Friday, it said.
Rival pastoralist communities in South Sudan have a long and bloody history of tit-for-tat raids in which cattle are rustled and property looted. Women are commonly raped and children abducted, adding fuel to revenge attacks.
Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny confirmed the “senseless” attacks, and said security chiefs had been summoned to a meeting on the violence.
“We condemn it in the strongest terms possible,” he said.
Such attacks have increased amidst the breakdown of society during the four-year civil war which began in December 2013.
Half the country is in need of emergency food and a third has been forced from their homes since then, according to the UN.
Over 60 killed in South Sudan cattle battles: Officials
Over 60 killed in South Sudan cattle battles: Officials
Helicopter crashes in Libya during medical evacuation, killing 3
- The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash
TRIPOLI: A helicopter has crashed in southeastern Libya, killing a medic and two crew members carrying out a medical evacuation, state media said Tuesday.
Libyan news agency LANA said the chopper went down overnight near an air base in the Kufra region about 60 kilometers north of the border between Libya and Chad.
The aircraft was attempting to evacuate a soldier who had been involved in a road accident in the desert, LANA said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known and it was unclear what happened to the injured soldier.
Libyan media reports said two foreign nationals were among those on board who were killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.
The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash.
Libya remains split between the eastern administration and a UN-backed government in the west led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah. The LANA news agency is under the control of western authorities.
Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted following a 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
