Peacekeepers keep watch after South Sudan rampage

MSAMBWENI, KENYA - Four hundred U.N. peacekeepers and 800 South Sudanese government troops were holding positions on Wednesday in a key town in South Sudan's Jonglei state after a days-long rampage by an 8,000-strong marauding tribal militia left dozens dead and forced as many as 50,000 people to flee their homes.

U.N. officials said they believe that the militia, from Jonglei's Lou Nuer tribe, has retreated for now after running out of populated areas to loot.

But the peacekeepers remained on watch in an area where ethnic violence between the Lou Nuer and their rivals, the Murle, has killed an estimated 1,000 people in the past year.

The rampage, which began before Christmas and ended on Tuesday, took place in one of the most remote corners of the world's newest country, underscoring the violent animosity that remains embedded in South Sudan's fractured ethnic map just months after its independence from Sudan in July.

With each new round of raiding, mobilized columns of armed youths sweep through the savannah, looting cattle, torching homes and slaughtering and abducting members of the rival group as they go.

The ongoing violence, and the new government's inability to contain it, prompted the United Nations to keep a peacekeeping force in the country after it split from Sudan.

But many now doubt whether the limited U.N. force will stop much of the bloodshed in a land with so much of it.

By the time the Lou Nuer arrived at Pibor on Friday, everyone but the U.N. troops had abandoned the town.

The Lou Nuer made one foray into Pibor but soon retreated when they found little there to steal and no people to kidnap or assault.

Government forces exchanged fire with the marauders, but the U.N. troops did not engage in combat with them.

Considering the difficult terrain and deployment limitations, the U.N. forces did the best they could, said Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan.

U.N. forces were greatly outnumbered, she said.