Rumbek, South Sudan--Sebastian Mabor was out last month looking for his cows -- and almost ended up another casualty in South Sudan's seemingly unstoppable descent into a cycle of violence.
Even though the central Lakes State region his been largely spared by the 15-month-old civil war, the conflict has nevertheless left the country awash with even more weapons, so that what used to be petty disputes are now often deadly.
"They took me at gunpoint to the bush, made me sit down," Mabor said of his experience, just a short walk away from his village and from which he barely escaped. "One of them said 'he's one to be killed', but another said 'no, he has to tell us which sub-clan he's from'".
"Before you could go to another village. But now if your cow is lost, you're not looking for it or you might be killed," said the 37-year-old.
South Sudan's civil war broke out in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir, from the majority Dinka tribe, accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar of the Nuer tribe, of plotting a coup.
The world's youngest nation, which only gained independence from Khartoum in 2011, has since been carved up along ethnic lines -- with the war marked by ethnic massacres, gang rapes, child soldier recruitment and a state of near-famine in many areas.
Mabor's ordeal may be common in the wider context, but what makes it all the more alarming is that his attackers were from the same ethnic group, the Dinka, and only targeted him because they were hunting members of a different Dinka sub-clan.
- Revenge rules -
The violence in South Sudan, worried observers say, has now become endemic.
"What is particular is how (the violence) has become very strong within the same tribe and among close neighbours," said Father Henry Gidudu, a Catholic priest and activist.
"It is escalating, we're experiencing revenge after another. People are killing themselves, destroying themselves. It has nothing to do with the current conflict, but the conflict is a contributing factor. Whenever there's war, people get opportunity to get weapons," he explained.
"We have to advocate for disarmament, but we also have to change attitudes, change the culture of violence to a culture of peace, a culture of revenge to culture of forgiveness."
According to locals, inter-clan violence frequently starts with the theft of cattle, a central feature of South Sudanese society and representative of personal wealth. Sometimes, however, the spark can be a simple brawl, which draws in other family members, and somebody ends up dead.
In one local case, a deadly brawl sparked a cycle of revenge that left 70 people dead over a year, before it was finally ended with cattle paid as compensation.
afp
