Dozens Dead in Shootout at S. Sudan Peace Meeting
Dozens of people were killed in South Sudan during a shootout at a peace meeting to resolve disputes about stolen cattle, with some reports claiming as many as 37 people died, officials said Friday.
"These guys just started shooting everywhere," said Gideon Gatpan Thoar, Unity state information minister, reporting 37 people killed in Wednesday's attack.
Local officials from Unity and the neighboring Lakes and Warrap states were taken by the United Nations 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, police, army as well as armed government wildlife officers, sprayed the meeting room with bullets in the battle. The exact cause for the fight is not known.
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.
South Sudan -- which declared independence from its former civil war enemy to the north in July -- is reeling from multiple crises, including ethnic clashes, violent cattle raids and rebel attacks.
U.N. peacekeepers confirmed the fighting but could not say how many had died. However, they said the gunfight erupted after one official interrupted the meeting and shouted at his counterpart.
"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 United Nations said.
At least 15 people with gunshot wounds had been taken to a clinic in Unity state run by the Doctors Without Borders, the medical aid agency said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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