Over 170 killed in clashes in South Sudan

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Over 170 people have been killed in inter-clan clashes in South Sudan over the past week, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency and call in the army.

"Right now, from both sides, we have 170-plus people who lost their lives. 342 houses have been burnt and almost 1,800 people displaced," Dharuai Mabor Teny, a member of parliament from the Great Lakes region where the fighting has been taking place, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"When it comes to those who are wounded, it is almost 200," AFP news agency also quoted him as saying.

Earlier reports put the death toll from the fighting, which represents a new source of violence in a country already devastated by a four-year civil war, at 60.

The clashes in the province's Malek county broke out after a group of young men from the Ruop ethnic group attacked rival youth from the Pakam group on Wednesday and Thursday. Revenge attacks have since taken place.

The violence prompted the government to declare a three-month state of emergency in the region and surrounding areas on Monday. The military has also been ordered to deploy troops to quell the unrest.

"The state of emergency is meant to curb violence," presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said, adding the fighters were hurling grenades and firing rockets at each other. "Civilians are locked up in very violent communal fighting."

The UN mission in South Sudan UNMISS said its troops were helping remove roadblocks mounted by the clashing groups in a bid to open up routes for movement and trade.

Rival pastoralist communities in South Sudan have a long and bloody history of tit-for-tat raids in which cattle are rustled and property looted. Women are commonly raped and children abducted, adding fuel to revenge attacks.

Such attacks have worsened amidst the breakdown of society during the four-year civil war which began in December 2013.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands, uprooted about a quarter of the population of 12 million people and left its small, oil-dependent economy moribund.‍

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency