JUBA: Unidentified youths shot dead 15 people in South Sudan’s Pibor region, including its commissioner, a senior official said on Wednesday, in the latest flare-up of violence in the country.
Civil war in South Sudan, erupting two years after the country won independence from Sudan and fought largely along ethnic lines between Dinkas and Nuers, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths between 2013 and 2018.
The shooting happened on Tuesday when the commissioner of Boma County in Pibor was returning from a visit to a village.
“The commissioner with his team went to Nyat village and on his return he was ambushed and 15 people were killed including the commissioner,” Abraham Kelang, information minister of Greater Pibor Administrative Area, told Reuters.
Kelang said the attackers were suspected to be youths from the region’s Anyuak community.
Among the dead were Boma’s deputy army commander, government officials and the county commisisoner’s bodyguards, Kelang said.
Since the 2018 peace deal, routine clashes among a patchwork of armed groups have continued to kill and displace large numbers of civilians.
The Greater Pibor Administrative Area is among those affected.
Inhabited mostly by the Murle ethnic community, Boma County has experienced periodic violence sometimes between the Murle and Anyuak or with the Nuer or the Dinkas from neighboring Jonglei State.
The violence is also motivated by cattle rustling.
Youths kill 15 in South Sudan in latest clash
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Youths kill 15 in South Sudan in latest clash
- The shooting happened when the commissioner of Boma County in Pibor was returning from a visit to a village
Syrian authorities arrest member of elite army unit linked to Assad’s brother
- 4th Armoured Division has been accused of human rights violations and drug smuggling during Syria’s civil war
LONDON: Syrian authorities arrested Nidal Ali Suleiman, a former member of an elite military unit during the regime of Bashar Assad, the Interior Ministry announced on Sunday.
Internal security forces in the Al-Ghab area, in coordination with the Anti-Terror Branch in Hama, arrested Suleiman, who is suspected of involvement in fighting in the Hama region. He is also accused of smuggling weapons to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and taking part in drug trafficking activities.
The 4th Armoured Division was an elite formation of the Syrian Arab Army established in the 1980s. From 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime, the unit was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president. The division has been accused of committing human rights violations, and was involved in drug manufacturing and smuggling during the civil war from 2011 to 2024.
Maher Assad is believed to have fled to Russia following the collapse of the regime.
Since December 2024, the new government in Damascus has arrested several Assad-era army officers for alleged crimes committed against Syrians during the conflict.
Last week, authorities in Hama detained three people accused of involvement in an armed group linked to remnants of the Assad regime.
Authorities said they remain committed to protecting citizens, maintaining civil peace, and enforcing the law against anyone who jeopardizes the security and stability of the country, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
