103 Dead in Cattle Raid: Killed in Akobo County, Region of South Sudan

Over 100 people were killed in a violence-prone region of South Sundan when one tribe attacked another as cattle were being moved across land, officials reported this Sunday.

Kuol Manyang Juuk, the governor of Jonglei state, said 103 people died in the Friday clash in Akobo County, adding that 17 of the attackers were killed and that 14 soldiers from South Sudan's military, the SPLA, who were accompanying the cattle-moving tribe also died.

The United Nations has said that more than 2,600 violence-related deaths have been reported in Jonglei from January 2011 to September 2012, and account for more than half of the reported deaths in South Sunday, a country that is emerging from delibiltating destruction of a decades-long war.

Jonglei County has been wracked by massive bouts of tribal violence for years, and covers northeastern South Sudan.

Akobo County Commissioner Goi Joyul said the attack took place during a yearly migration in which members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group were driving cattle across the Sobat River.

The commissioner said survivors of the attack saw the assailants use rocket-propelled grenades in addition to machetes and spears "thus overwhelming an SPLA force accompanying the people."

Joyul said the attackers in Friday's violence are believed to be members of the rebel group led by David Yau Yau, a former member of the South Sudanese army from the Murle ethnic group.

Yau Yau launched a rebellion after failing to win a parliamentary seat in the Sudanese general elections in April 2010. South Sudan has repeatedly accused Sudan of backing Yau Yau and airlifting weapons and supplies to remote corners of Jonglei. However, Khartoum denies providing any support to the rebel group.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that it sent a surgical team to Akobo to help treat those injured in the attack.

United Nations Mission in South Sudan spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said a joint team from it and the government of South Sudan traveled to the area on Sunday and has been assessing the situation.