Warrior Security operations manager Rob McKee reports on recent escalation:
Ethnic violence is spreading to new areas of South Sudan’s
volatile Jonglei state and involving new minority tribes previously unaffected.
Akobo town is currently seeing a surge of fighting between
the Lou Nuer and Anyuak tribes.
Several were killed last week and Warrior Security’s
security officers on the ground confirm sustained gunfire and mortar attacks
have been on going for the last five days.
Violence erupted on October 3rd following the
alleged murder of a Lou Nuer man. Lou Nuer then attacked Anyuak communities in Old Akobo and
Dimmah. Civilians were killed during the events but the specific
number of casualties is not yet independently verifiable.
Security forces have been deployed in the area to prevent
further escalation; however, revenge attacks and larger clashes between the two
communities in the coming days is a plausible scenario.
Movement to Akobo, Walgak and Waat is not advised at this
time because of a high security risk.
Jonglei has been the scene of South Sudan’s worst
inter-ethnic violence, much of it involving the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes.
The Anyuak are more closely linked with the Murle tribe. Both Anyuak and Murle are minority tribes found on South
Sudan’s far eastern border with Ethiopia’s remote Gambella region, which is
also inhabited by Anuak and Murle peoples.