Lakes: 10 dead and 13 others wounded in clashes

January 16, 2013 (RUMBEK) – Inter-clan clashes involving sections of the Dinka ethnic group reignited in Lakes state on Wednesday at a cattle camp between Marial-bek and Ghun, according to local officials.

The cause of fighting was a dispute over the ownership of an area of grassland, known as Toch in the Dinka language, between the Amothnhom and Panyon clans.

The clashes have left 10 people dead, with 13 people sustaining gunshot wounds.

Lakes state’s minister of local government and law and enforcement Benjamin Makuer Mabor said South Sudanese police and military forces had been dispatched to separate the fighting clans and that the situation was now under control.

“We have sent a good number of South Sudan Police Services (SSPS) and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces into toch land of Marial-bek and Gun to control the situation,” said Makuer.

He said the groups involved in the conflict are now increasing, adding that suspected ring leaders from all sides will be captured.

“This fighting is no longer Panyon and Amothnhom clashes alone, it is Rup and Kuei clashes,” said Makuer.

Twelve people were killed and 23 wounded as a result of inter-communal violence in Rumbek central county in Lakes state last November after fighting broke out in a cattle camp 34km north-east of the state capital, according to the official.

Makuer old Sudan Tribune at the time that the conflict was alleged to have begun after young men from the Panyon and Amothnhon communities of the Dinka ethnic group exchanged verbal insults.

(ST)