The fighters, members of South Sudan’s Murle tribe, launched the attack on the rival Nuer tribe in Ethiopia’s western region of Gambella on Friday, killing 140 people and abducting dozens, including children, according to Ethiopia’s Communications Minister Getachew Reda.
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“We don’t think (the armed men) have any links to the South Sudan government or the rebels”. This is not the first time an attack of this nature has occurred.
The minister stressed that the assailants had no relation to South Sudan’s army or rebel groups who fought the government during a civil war.
The defense force has so far killed 60 members of the group.
They have previously been accused of carrying out cattle raids and stealing children to raise as their own.
It is the worst violence in the border region since the South Sudan tribal conflict erupted more than two years ago, raising concern that it might spill over into Ethiopia and threaten the stability of one of Africa’s most promising economies.
Ethiopia’s region of Gambela which borders the South Sudan Buma state is inhabited by an important Ethiopian Nuer community. The measures will continue even by crossing border, the office adds. “The conflict in South Sudan has resulted in refugees moving into Ethiopia”.
Ethiopia is hosting thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled the 2013 clashes that began when President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy Riek Machar, accusing him of plotting a coup.
Ethiopia’s Gambela region has a sizeable Nuer population as well. The incident split the country into two factions. The conflict is still ongoing despite of the several peace deals signed by the president and Machar in 2015.
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Tens of thousands have been killed and over two million people forced to flee their homes during the war.
