Violence over the weekend in southern Sudan’s Jonglei province left 177 people dead, with a final toll expected to reach 300, according to a local official.
Reuters reported that armed men from the Murle tribe attacked villages inhabited by the rival group Lou Nuer. A local official interviewed about the attacks over the weekend said that 16 villages were razed and many children drowned in a river as they tried to escape the gunmen.
The oil-rich Jonglei region has seen a spate of ethnic violence in recent weeks, a trend that is particularly troubling as Sudan looks ahead to national elections next year and a referendum in 2011 to consider dividing the country in two.