At least 32 people, including children, have been killed during armed raids in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state, according to the United Nations. The attacks on the villages of Dungrut and Machined on Sunday sent civilians from the Dinka Bor community fleeing as armed youths from the Murle ethnic group opened fire and torched property. Among the dead were three children who drowned in a river while trying to escape, the UN Mission in South Sudan UNMISS said in a statement on Tuesday.
Oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in June 2011 but has been engulfed in ethnic violence since December 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir began battling those loyal to his deputy, Riek Machar. The brutal civil war that ensued killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions. Numerous attempts at peace failed, and the government has failed to achieve many reforms—including completing the unification of the army command, graduating a unified force,, and reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly—prompting warnings by the UN and others that the peace agreement is at risk of collapse if key pillars of the accords remain unfulfilled.
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