At least eighteen people, including eight members of the security forces, were killed yesterday Monday in gunmen’s attacks in western South Sudan, the state’s interim governor told AFP on Tuesday.

“Eight were military and ten were civilians. In the morning (yesterday Monday) gunmen attacked the police station” of Tharqueg Payam, said the transitional governor of Bar el Ghazal state, Arcangelo Anyar Anyar.

Civilian casualties include “children, women, elderly” who were “burnt, unable to escape,” the governor said, adding that more than 2,000 people were displaced.

Always according to the governor, “armed youths” from neighboring Warrap state torched a market, houses and a police station over a land ownership dispute.

The situation “is now under control”, assured the authorities.

Last Wednesday, at least 39 people were killed and 53 others injured during fighting between two groups of herders in neighboring states in the central part of the country.

And, from late January to early February, between 73 and 150 people were killed in ethnically motivated attacks and clashes between the Ngok and Twik tribes of the Dinka ethnic group — the country’s most populous — in Abyei, a border region claimed by South Sudan and the Sudan.

Deadly clashes are common in Abyei, whose status has been pending since South Sudan gained independence in 2011; it remains under the protection of UN peacekeepers.

Yesterday Tuesday, President Salva Kiir and his vice-president Riek Macar called via X (the former Twitter) to “end the violence”, criticizing land disputes between the Ngoc and Tuik tribes.

Ethnic and tribal conflicts are undermining the stability of the world’s newest state. After independence, South Sudan was plunged into civil war between the forces of—sworn enemies—Rik Macar and Salva Kiir. The conflict claimed nearly 400,000 lives and displaced millions between 2013 and 2018.

A peace deal signed in 2018 provided for power-sharing and the formation of a national unity government, with Mr Kiir as president and Mr Makar as vice-president.

But the agreement largely remains unenforceable, due to frequent disputes between them. The country remains mired in violence, instability and poverty, despite its vast oil wealth.

Within the year, elections are expected to be held to select the figure that will succeed the government of national unity.