According to the Ethiopian authorities members of the South Sudanese Murle tribe attacked the village of Jikawo in the Gambella region inhabited by people of the Nuer tribe. More than one hundred of them arrived before dawn, surrounding some villages. The Army from the nearest centre, Lare, and then from Gambella intervened as soon as possible, but most of the attackers managed to escape. The affected area is one that has often been contested between various communities and pastoralists. There had been numerous violent clashes in previous years.
The Interior Minister came to Gambella "to be close to the people and to try to recover especially the abducted children," says Fr Perin.
The authorities of South Sudan and Ethiopia are organizing efforts to recover the children and arrest the perpetrators of the massacre. "They say that there have been initial contacts at least to get back the children," the missionary said, adding that these days they try to maintain "closeness with the Nuer ethnic group".
"Our thoughts go to those people who were killed, I was six years in that area and I went several times to the village of Jikawo to see if we could build a church. We saw that it was too close to the river so we moved to Biro MITOL and finally Nib Nib, where we used to go for catechism, and where I have many friends. I hope they are still alive but I have no news of them,” he concludes.
