More than 1,000 people have been killed and 400 others have been kidnapped in communal conflicts in South Sudan over the past six months, the UN said on Tuesday (November 17th).
Read also: The UN condemns a new humanitarian murder in South Sudan
South Sudan, where a peace accord was signed in 2018, is struggling to recover from a six-year civil war that claimed some 380,000 lives and officially ended with the creation of a government of national unity in February.
Violence has nonetheless resumed in recent months between rival communities, often involving looting of livestock leading to deadly settlements.
"
Over 1,000 people have died in Warrap State in the past six months (...) There are many people who intend to carry out retaliatory attacks to avenge those who have died,
" said an official of UN in South Sudan, David Shearer.
The latter said he feared an escalation of violence once the dry season arrived in January.
At the same time, in the state of Jonglei (east), "
hundreds
" of people have died in fighting this year "
and more than 400 people have been kidnapped
", he added.
"
The risk of a conflict in Jonglei is therefore (...) very, very high
", he warned.
David Shearer called for inter-community dialogue and indicated that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan would deploy peace mediators in several places identified as hotbeds of violence.
Observers fear that intercommunal violence will derail the peace agreement signed in September 2018. The key principles of this agreement, including the unification of armed groups into a single army, are so far unfulfilled.