Title: Renewed Fighting in Southern Sudan Claims 26 Lives

Officials indicated today, Tuesday, that "fighting between local groups in the west of Southern Sudan has led to the deaths of at least 26 people, while the country's president and vice president have called for an end to the increasing sectarian violence." Local officials state, "The conflicts do not seem to be directly related to one another, but all are related to control over land and natural resources." More than 150 people have been killed since last week in separate clashes between armed youth from Warrap State and rivals from the neighboring Lakes and Western Bahr el Ghazal states, as well as the Abyei administrative area, which is jointly managed by Southern Sudan and Sudan. Southern Sudan has officially enjoyed peace since the 2018 agreement that ended a five-year conflict that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, but local violence among competing communities continues to flare up from time to time.