The number of people killed in a weekend attack in South Sudan’s Ruweng Administrative Area has risen to 178, local officials said.
The toll increased from an initial 169 after several victims died from their injuries at a hospital in Abyei run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The violence broke out on Sunday in Abiemnhom County when armed youth suspected of coming from Mayom County in Unity State launched an assault on the area.
James Monyliak Majok, the information minister for the Ruweng Administrative Area, told Radio Tamazuj that the dead included women, children and the elderly.
“We still have 73 patients being treated in hospital,” Majok said, adding that an unknown number of civilians remain missing following the attack.
The minister said authorities and community members are still recovering bodies from the area.
International condemnation
The scale of the killings has drawn condemnation from the international community. In a joint statement, the European Union and a coalition of Western embassies — including the Embassy of the United Kingdom in South Sudan, Embassy of the United States in South Sudan, Royal Norwegian Embassy in South Sudan and Embassy of Canada in South Sudan — condemned what they described as a “brutal attack.”
“South Sudan’s leaders have to work together to end violence and re-establish peace across the country,” the statement said, calling for immediate accountability for those responsible.
The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), the body overseeing South Sudan’s peace agreement, described the incident as “horrific.” It said with concern that senior local government officials and law enforcement officers were among those killed.
UNISFA response
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said the attack displaced hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, who fled into the Abyei Area, about eight kilometres from Abiemnhom.
UNISFA said its peacekeepers immediately deployed to south-eastern Abyei to protect civilians and intensified patrols following the violence.
The mission said it is closely coordinating with Abyei authorities and local leaders to help defuse tensions and restore calm, in coordination with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
UNISFA said its Ghana Level II hospital is treating nine civilians injured in the attack and has carried out lifesaving emergency surgery on eight of them.
The mission also deployed medical personnel to support the local facility run by Médecins Sans Frontières, which is treating the wounded, and said it is assisting displaced people by providing shelter and access to water.
UNISFA added that reports indicate an increasing number of civilians are continuing to flee into the Abyei Area due to the fighting, warning that the attacks are likely to further increase humanitarian needs.
Calls for justice
Civil society groups in South Sudan described the incident as a “national tragedy,” with reports that more than 170 people were buried in a mass grave.
Bol Deng Bol, chairperson of the Jonglei Civil Society Network, urged the government to move beyond verbal condemnations.
“The burial of people in a mass grave is a painful reminder of the insecurity our civilians continue to face,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
While the national government has promised an investigation, the attackers have yet to be apprehended.
The Ruweng Administrative Area has seen sporadic clashes in recent months, but observers say the latest escalation could further destabilize the country’s fragile peace process.