Twenty-seven people have been killed in South Sudan in tit-for-tat violence involving cattle herders and militia fighters, a regional government official said, as the country prepares to welcome Pope Francis.
The pope is set to arrive in South Sudan on Friday from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, hoping to jolt a peace process aimed at ending aFighters from a rebel group on Thursday killed six people from a herding community in Central Equatoria state. Herders retaliated later in the day by killing 21 civilians in a nearby area, including five children and a pregnant woman, said Kajo-Keji county commissioner Phanuel Dumo.
Dumo accused the National Salvation Front - one of a handful of anti-government militias operating in the country - of attacking the herders. NAS denied it was responsible.
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