PIBOR, South Sudan, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- U.N. officials and the South Sudanese military said they're trying to confirm reports that more than 3,000 villagers were slaughtered in ethnic violence.
The United Nations said its aircraft have tracked between 6,000 and 8,000 armed fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe advancing toward the town of Pibor, home of the rival Murle ethnic group, The New York Times reported Friday. The two groups have been in a cattle-rustling feud for years.
The United Nations and the South Sudanese army said they are still collecting information from the conflict zone, where Pibor County Commissioner Joshua Konyi, a Murle, said 2,182 women and children and 959 men have been killed, 1,293 children were abducted and 375,186 cows stolen.
"We've been counting the bodies," Konyi told the Times Thursday. "It's really a genocide. If you come, you will see."
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U.N. officials earlier this week said they had a much lower death toll, "in the tens, if not the hundreds," and had unearthed several corpses.
U.N. peacekeepers had tried to stop Lou Nuer fighters from storming Pibor, but when confronted with a superior number of tribal fighters, the peacekeepers advised Pibor residents to flee, the Times said.
"At this stage, it's very difficult to get an accurate picture," Kouider Zerrouk, a U.N. spokesman in South Sudan, said. "We're not in a position to confirm any figures, and we're in the process of assessing their validity."
Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for South Sudan's military, said it was regrettable that the army couldn't prevent the onslaught.
"I'm sure many people died," Aguer said. "This region is in conflict. This is not the first incident of this kind, and it will not be the last."
