“They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses.”

Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda. No fewer than 16 civilians have been killed and ten others injured in South Sudan’s northwestern town of Wau following sporadic fighting between government-backed militia and local youth, the UN mission said Monday.The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the fighting started after a number of government SPLA soldiers were killed in an ambush on Sunday in the south of Wau.“The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured,” the UNMISS said in a statement.The UN mission said 84 people have arrived at the UN protection of civilian site, while an influx of at least 3,000 people into a Catholic church in the town, mostly women and children, has been reported.“The fighting follows the movement of SPLA troops, tanks and equipment towards the southwestern part of Wau late last week,” UNMISS said.South Sudan has been devastated by civil strife that broke out in December 2013. The power struggle between President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, broke out in December 2013, after the president accused Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup.
Government-aligned militias kill 16 people during a raid in Wau, South Sudan.