Up to 1100 People Killed in Jonglei Fighting in South Sudan

South Sudan Jonglei State Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk has accused the NCP government in Khartoum of supporting rebels fighting the new SPLA administration. Fighting continues despite independence in July., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

South Sudan at the Mercy of the White Army
Mona Al-Bashir

Up to 1100 People Killed in Fighting in Jonglei in 2011

Clashes Displace 63,000 People in Jonglei

Sudan Vision
Nuer

South Sudan has been subject to bloody ethnical clashes since its separation from Sudan. Sometimes news articles report the terrible attacks by Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) against civilians in South Sudan while sometimes intensive news about attacks by split factions against SPLA aiming to topple government of South Sudan.

The United Nations keeps calling on different South Sudanese parties to restore self-control however such efforts are seemingly useless as scale of violence in South Sudan has accelerated. Recently the White Army, an armed group relevant to Nuer ethnicity, has topped news as one of the most dangerous militias threatening staggered stability in the newly-born state.

Ethnical Disputes Renew in South Sudan
During the war, though the term "White Army" could refer collectively to Nuer youth militants, there was rarely any functioning central authority for the disparate fighters, and a number of White Army factions based around different cattle camps operated autonomously or semi-autonomously of one another. The ranks of leadership had a reportedly high rate of turnover.

After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 between the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A, which formed the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, the Nuer White Army lost its remaining coherence. By February 2006, Nuer elders interviewed by Small Arms Survey workers acknowledged they had little or no control over the armed youths and said the incidence of cattle theft and other miscreant behaviour on the youths' part was increasing.

Riek Machar, the White Army's erstwhile wartime ally, announced the White Army would be disbanded amidst a SPLM/A disarmament campaign in the region.

However, it was not until a major defeat in May 2006 near Motot, in Jonglei's Uror County, in which 113 White Army fighters were reportedly killed for the loss of a single Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldier, that the fighters gave up their attempts at resistance, according to the Small Arms Survey.[1] The news service IRIN reported that more than 1,000 Lou Nuer men and boys in Akobo County who had been part of the White Army voluntarily surrendered their weapons to authorities in July 2006.

White Army Re-ignites Unrest in the Region
In late December 2011, several months after South Sudan gained its independence, The Upper Nile Times reported that the Nuer White Army had reformed and had issued a threat on Christmas Day 2011 to "wipe out the entire Murle Tribe on the face of the earth as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's cattle".

Pibor under Fire

The statement also declared the White Army's intention to fight the SPLA and the United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission in the country. The declaration marked an escalation in the ongoing clashes between the SPLA, the Murle, and the Lou Nuer in Jonglei and Upper Nile, which began when armed Murle fighters under the influence of George Athor's South Sudan Democratic Movement launched a cattle raid against the Lou Nuer in Jonglei state. UNMISS responded by deploying peacekeepers to Pibor town and urging both the Murle and Lou Nuer to lay down their arms.

“Thousands of Nuer youth in Jonglei State, South Sudan are planning to attack a rival tribe in what could become a major tragedy,” the United Nations warned on Monday.

Hilde Johnson, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) heads said, "I am deeply concerned to learn of reports of this imminent large scale attack on civilians in Jonglei State.”

"The government must act now if we are to avert a major tragedy." UNMISS air patrols over the weekend identified thousands of armed Lou Nuer youths preparing to attack communities of the Murle tribe near Likuangole in Jonglei, the UN said.

Last August, the Murle of Pibor attacked of Uror County in Jonglei State left more than 600 people dead; most of them are children, women, and seniors. Therefore, the Nuer Youth of Jonglei promised for the revenge.

On Sunday the Nuer Youth White Army who called themselves Nuer Power issued a statement vowing to "wipe out the entire Murle Tribe on the face of the earth as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's cattle."

The statement said, "We the Nuer Youth have decided to fight the Murle, SPLA and the UN."

Johnson said, “The primary responsibility for protecting civilians lies with the government in Juba, but UNMISS has reinforced its peacekeepers in Jonglei while conducting continuous air patrols to deter potential violence.”

UNMISS is calling for reconciliation among Murle and Nuer community. UNMISS warned that the violence has already affected "so many civilians,"

"Time is now running out and the government needs to redouble its efforts to prevent a tragedy and avert large-scale violence. All South Sudanese people must now put peace and stability in their new and independent country above any other concerns and interests", Johnson said.

"So this is not normal cattle rustling," she continued.

South Sudanese soldiers accidentally shot dead four Christmas Eve worshippers and wounded 15, the young nation’s military spokesman said on Tuesday.

“This is terrible,” Philip Aguer told AFP. “SPLA has never done such a thing before in our history.”

The tragedy occurred on December 24 in Pigi County, Jonglei state.

Soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) opened fire when they found one of their colleagues with nine bullets in his body after an earlier shooting near the church, Aguer said.

“Unfortunately they started shooting randomly,” and hit worshippers fleeing the church at the sound of the gunfire, he added.

The second lieutenant in charge of the platoon has been arrested and an investigation ordered, the spokesman said.

SPLA was the rebel force that battled Khartoum until a 2005 peace agreement ended two decades of civil war, ahead of South Sudan’s independence in July this year.

Aguer said tensions had been raised since December 23 when a landmine killed an SPLA soldier who was helping to protect the burial ceremony for George Athor, who fought for the southern rebels and reached the rank of general before turning renegade last year.

Up to 140 Doctors Disappeared in Jonglei
Jonglei state is home to various pastoralist communities who often engage in cattle rustling, resulting in civilian deaths, displacement and in some cases child abduction. Considerable number of human organizations has suspended their mission in the region due to recurring violence.

Doctors without Borders expressed anxiety about disappearance of 140 workers of its staff working in South Sudan.

Head of the organization's mission in South Sudan told BBC that they managed to contact with fifteen of them while attempts to contact the rest is in progress.