At least 27 people were killed in Equatoria, in central South Sudan, when violence erupted between cattle herders and gunmen ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the country, a local official said.
Today, Friday, Pope Francis arrived in South Sudan for a joint visit with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Coordinator of the Church of Scotland.
The Pope’s visit to South Sudan is the second stop in Africa from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yesterday, Thursday, rebel militia gunmen killed six people from a group of state pastors. Kajo-Keji County Commissioner Fanuel Dumo said the herdsmen later retaliated, killing 21 civilians in a nearby area, including five children and a pregnant woman.
Domo blamed the National Salvation Front, one of the country’s anti-government militias, for the attack on the shepherds, but the front denied responsibility.
Bori Herdsmen Group Secretary General Mayo Ateni Way also denied retaliation for the killing of civilians, saying the front is responsible for the casualties.
A peace deal signed in 2018 led the main parties to the 2013-2018 war to significantly reduce the level of violence in South Sudan in recent years.
However, there are often minor skirmishes between rival communities. Violence continued to spread in areas where communities dispute rights to pasture, water, farmland and other resources.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is accompanying the Pope to South Sudan, expressed his dismay at the death.
“We often get such news from South Sudan. Once again I call (to adopt) another path: South Sudan unites for a just peace,” he wrote on Twitter.
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Source: Al Ittihad
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