Tribal violence kills 185 in Sudan

CAIRO – Armed tribesmen attacked a fishing village in southeast Sudan where hundreds of displaced people were camped near a river, leaving at least 185 people, most of them women and children, dead in the worst violence in three months, a southern Sudan official said Monday.

A flare-up of tribal clashes in south Sudan over cattle and territory has left more 1,000 people killed so far this year. The violence is separate from the six-year-old conflict between rebels and government forces in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan.

U.N. and local officials expressed concern that the violence in the south, which has increasingly targeted women and children, could hamper preparation for national and presidential elections scheduled for April 2010.

The elections are a key component of a deal that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan’s north and south in 2005. If violence prevents the voting, that could re-open a path to war.

The peace agreement created a semiautonomous government in the south, battered by the war and flooded with guns.

Sunday’s violence is part of a series of attacks between southern tribes that have their roots in territorial claims or cattle theft. But local officials say recent attacks have been fueled by revenge and the widespread availability of arms.

Local Commissioner Goi Yol of Akobo County said a “huge” number of armed men attacked a makeshift village at dawn Sunday where families from the Lou-Nuer tribe moved in recent weeks in search of food. The camping area overlooks the Geni River, near the Ethiopian border, in Jongeli state.

Yol blamed the attack on the rival Murle tribe, who have refused to observe a negotiated cease-fire after a series of tit-for-tat attacks earlier this year. Some 650 people from both tribes have been killed since March.