Several villages in Gumuruk County of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) have been burned to ashes due to ongoing fighting in the area, local officials said.

The escalating violence started on Christmas Eve following an attack by an armed Jonglei State youth group on the Bich-Bich area in Greater Pibor.

Simon Peter Ajany, a local government minister in the Pibor area, told Radio Tamazuj Monday morning that the attacking youth are burning villages as they advance on the county headquarters, Gumuruk town.

“The clashes are still contained within Gumuruk County in Greater Nanaam. After the attack on December 24, on December 25, they captured the Manakamkuth area, and today (Monday) clashes are ongoing in the Kaka area,” Simon said. ”Villages in these three areas are burnt to ashes. The good thing is that civilians in those areas fled days before the attack.”

The local government minister said the Murle youth are defending the area as the attacking youth try closing in on Gumuruk town.

“Their advance has been slowed down because our youth are counter-attacking them. That is why all cattle they seized were recovered by the locals,” he said.

Meanwhile, Judi Jonglei Boyoris, the speaker of the GPAA legislative assembly, said the clashes are heavy.

“The attackers are trying to capture Gumuruk town. But our youth have been mobilizing, and now they are countering the advance,” Jonglei said. “About the casualties, there are no details yet because clashes are still continuing.”

For his part, Commissioner Machot Gatluak Kenyak of Uror County in Jonglei state, where the attackers are suspected to have come from, said they were unaware of the ongoing fighting.

“We are not aware of these attacks in Pibor. As authorities, what we know is that a week ago, we had a group of youth who were in pursuit of their cattle raided by the Pibor youth from Tiam. So, if they met somewhere else, to clash is what we do not know. “   

On Wednesday, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned that armed Nuer youth in Jonglei State were mobilizing to attack Pibor.

“Any such upsurge of conflict will undermine recent peace gains achieved through a rapprochement between the leaders of Jonglei state and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA),” the Mission said.