16 Ethiopian killed in raid by Sudanese herders

April 19, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Up to 16 people in western Ethiopia were shot and killed in a weekend cattle raid by rival herders from neighboring Sudan as a searing drought grips east Africa, relief workers said Wednesday.

Ethiopia’s defense ministry confirmed the incident but said only two people were killed when hundreds of Nuer tribal warriors from Sudan attacked Ethiopian Nuers in a village in the western Gambella region early Sunday.

“About 450 Sudanese Nuer crossed the border into Jikaw on the 16th of April looted cattle from Ethiopians and shot two Ethiopian Nuer,” ministry spokesman Dawit Assefa told AFP. “They took about 281 cattle and 31 goats.”

Aid workers with knowledge of the area, however, contradicted the government account and said 16 people were killed and nine wounded in the attack, which they said happened on Saturday and displaced a large number of Ethiopian Nuer.

“Members of the Nuer tribe from Sudan… killed 16 Ethiopian Nuer among them women and children,” a humanitarian official told AFP from the town of Gambella about 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Jikaw.

“They shot them and seized their cattle,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of tribal rivalries in the area.

A second aid worker based in Addis Ababa gave the same casualty toll and said all the livestock in Jikaw had been stolen.

“All cattle from the village were stolen (and) the attack resulted in internal displacement of Ethiopian Nuers, mainly women and children,” the second official told AFP.

“These clashes are seasonal, during a drought these things are happening,” the official said.

Inter-clan tensions have long run high in the Gambella region, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, but have been exacerbated by the drought that is also blamed for similar deadly violence on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border.

(ST)