Tribal fighters attack south Sudan food barges

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Armed tribesmen attacked barges carrying U.N. food aid in south Sudan, leaving an unknown number of casualties in the latest in an outbreak of ethnic violence, officials said Saturday.

Members of the Jikany Nuer tribe attacked 27 boats as they were carrying tonnes of food towards an area controlled by a rival ethnic group on the Sobat river Friday afternoon, said the U.N.'s World Food Program.

The remote region has seen a surge in ethnic fighting in recent months, fuelled by traditional disputes over cattle and a ready supply of guns after more than two decades of civil war.

Officials said they were still trying to get detailed information on the attack which happened on the tributary of the White Nile close to the border with Ethiopia.

"We don't have information on how many people were killed or injured. But everyone we have talked to has described it as an attack," said Michelle Iseminger, the WFP's head of programs in southern Sudan.

"Many of the boats are unaccounted for."

Iseminger said the barges, carrying sorghum and other food for thousands of people displaced by tribal fighting, set off from the town of Nasir in Upper Nile State, but failed to arrive at their destination of Akobo.

So far, sixteen of the boats had returned to Nasir, and appeared to have been looted, she added.

Iseminger said the boats and their crews had been contracted to carry the food for the WFP and included an escort of soldiers from the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army. No U.N. officers were on board, she added