Renewed South Sudan fighting kills 26 people, officials say
PHOTO CAPTION: A South Sudanese soldier walks around the streets of Juba in a "show of force" ahead of Pope Francis' visit to the country this week in Juba, South Sudan February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Jok Solomun
JUBA (Reuters) - Fighting between local groups in western South Sudan has killed at least 26 people, officials said on Tuesday, as the country's president and vice president called for an end to rising inter-communal violence.
More than 150 people have been killed since last week in separate conflicts that have pitted armed youths from Warrap State against rivals from the neighbouring Lakes and Western Bar El Ghazal states, and Abyei, an administrative area that is jointly run by South Sudan and Sudan.
The conflicts do not appear to be directly connected but are all linked to the control of land and natural resources, local officials say.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal that ended a five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but localised violence between rival communities flares frequently.
President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, whose respective forces battled each other during the 2013-2018 civil war, met to call for "an end to sub-national violence in parts of the country", according to a post by the government on social media platform X.
National elections are due later this year to choose leaders who will succeed the current transitional government.
The latest clashes occurred on Monday when armed youths from Warrap State attacked and burnt a police station and market in Western Bar el Ghazal State, the state's acting governor Arkenjelo Anyar Anyar told Reuters.
He said eight security officers and 10 civilians from his state were killed.
William Wol, the information minister in Warrap, said eight people from his state were also killed. He blamed the fighting on a dispute over fertile land used for grazing and farming.
(Reporting by Waakhe Simon Wudu; Editing by Aaron Ross and Kylie MacLellan)
