Thirty two killed in south Sudan militia clashes

JALAHAK, Southern Sudan, Apr 12 (Reuters) Thirty-two people, including 17 civilians, have been killed in five days of fighting between members of a southern Sudanese militia group, local officials said today.

The fighting was between two factions of the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), which had fought alongside Sudanese government forces against the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during a north-south civil war.

One SSDF faction joined SPLA forces and the other joined the government army after a peace deal signed last year stipulated armed groups had to join the army or the SPLA.

''The enemy militias attacked,'' local official Gatkoth Garhoth told Reuters by telephone, adding that 15 civilians and 15 fighters had been killed.

Garhoth said the fighting started in the area of Nasir in Upper Nile state, where he is a commissioner. Another official said on Wednesday the violence had spread to the nearby area of Ulang.

''There was fighting today and it is still continuing ... two women have been killed,'' said Gabriel Tut Kai, an official from Ulang.

Ulang and Nasir are both about 400 km (250 miles) north of Malakal town.

The United Nations has been slow to deploy about 10,000 soldiers to monitor a ceasefire in the south between the SPLA and government forces.

Regular government and SPLA forces did not take part in the fighting. The officials said the main body of government forces was in Malakal.

''We are not getting involved in this fighting but we will report it,'' said Mayik Samuel, a local SPLA commander.

Samuel said the fighting damaged the prospects for postwar development in the impoverished area and implementation of the peace deal, which makes provision for a referendum in the south on whether to breakaway from the rest of Sudan.

About 2 million people died and 4 million were made homeless during the north-south civil war, Africa's longest.

A separate conflict is raging in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, where rebels say the government has used militias to attack their communities. The government says the militias are not used against civilians.

REUTERS SHR BD0107