South Sudan villagers killed after being lured from homes with promise of aid, witnesses say

NAIROBI, Kenya — More than a dozen civilians were killed after being lured from their homes by fighters allied to South Sudan 's government under the pretense of being registered for humanitarian food aid, according to two people who survived the attack.

The killings took place on Saturday morning in the village of Pankor, in Ayod County, in the conflict-hit Jonglei State, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of the capital, Juba. Women and children were among the victims.

Several dozen fighters arrived in pickup trucks and announced over a loudspeaker that they had come to register residents for food assistance, said the two survivors, who both spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

''They gathered them in a luak'' said one witness, referring to a traditional mud hut used to house cattle. ''People were thinking they would get aid or some help.''

The fighters then bound the hands of several men and opened fire on the group. The two survivors said that 22 people were killed and several more injured. The government-appointed county commissioner said 16 people were killed. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the numbers.

Photos showed bodies of women and young men, some with their hands bound behind their backs, who appear to have been shot at close range. The images, which were shared with the AP by an opposition representative, are too graphic to publish.

Makuach Muot, 34, traveled to Pankor on Sunday for the funerals of eight relatives. Most of the village's residents had fled fighting months earlier, he said, leaving behind mainly elderly people and young children.

James Chuol Jiek, the government-appointed county commissioner of Ayod, confirmed that more than a dozen people, mostly women and children, had been killed in the attack.

He said the gunmen belonged to the Agwelek militia, a force drawn from the Shilluk ethnic group that has not been fully integrated into the national army but that has been deeply involved in recent military operations.

Jiek said that the fighters had left their barracks overnight without the knowledge of their commander. He said they told him the killings were revenge for attacks by a Nuer militia on Shilluk villages in 2022, during which hundreds of civilians were killed or abducted.

The government county commissioner condemned the killings and said that several officers had been arrested and that the army had disarmed 150 fighters from the battalion involved. He disputed that people had been lured out for an aid registration. ''This is an opposition lie,'' he said.

In January, Agwelek militia commander Lt. Gen. Johnson Olony was filmed ordering his forces to kill civilians during military operations in Jonglei state. ''Spare no lives,'' he said. ''When we arrive there, don't spare an elderly, don't spare a chicken, don't spare a house or anything.''

Armed clashes, aerial bombardments and years of extreme flooding has left more than half Ayod County's population facing severe food insecurity.

Ayod County lies in northern Jonglei state, an opposition stronghold and a flashpoint in renewed fighting that the U.N. estimates displaced 280,000 since December. Aid groups have warned that access restrictions to opposition-held parts of the state were endangering civilian lives.

Residents of northern Jonglei are overwhelmingly from the Nuer ethnic group of suspended vice president and opposition leader Riek Machar.