GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The United Nations expressed outrage after a cattle raid in South Sudan left at least 78 people dead, mostly from machete wounds.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he was "very concerned" about reports of violence in Warrap state of South Sudan early this week.
"Reportedly, about three-quarters of those who were killed were women and children," he said. "Most of the killing appears to have been inflicted by machetes."
He said around 70,000 head of cattle were looted by men from the neighboring South Sudanese state of Unity.
"This is extremely worrying because an exclusively pastoralist economy means that around 40,000 people have now been left without a livelihood," Colville added.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said she was "outraged" over reports that Sudanese forces bombed a school in South Kordofan. Rice said nobody was killed in the attacks, though eight bombs were dropped in what she said represents the "viciousness" of ongoing border conflicts.
South Sudan became an independent state in July as part of a peace agreement reached in 2005. Ethnic disputes, border clashes and skirmishes over oil revenue threaten to unravel the peace deal, however.
