Roundup: South Sudan, Ethiopia to hold talks over civilian killings

South Sudan President Salva Kiir is set to hold talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn over the massacre of 208 villagers and kidnapping of 102 children in a cross-border raid last week by gunmen from Juba.

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Bashir Gbandi said president Kiir has taken the initiative that he will be talking to his Desalegn to pay his condolence and assure of increased security along the common border.

"Also our Chief of Staff has been directed and has been in contact with the Chief of Staff of Ethiopia, we are working hard to diffuse this situation," Gbandi told journalists in Juba on Wednesday.

He conceded that the gunmen behind the killings were from South Sudan and took advantage of the country's insecurity situation and the porous border with Ethiopia to carry out the heinous crime.

"Although this attack has been attributed to some elements which went from inside South Sudan but I am happy this has been confirmed by authorities in Ethiopia that the government of South Sudan has no hand in that," Gbandi said.

"These were bandits and it is our responsibility as government to fight these bandits. You know in South Sudan we have even cattle rustlers and this is the situation which is happening," he said.

Gunmen from the Murle tribe descended on a dozen villages in Ethiopia's remote Gambella province last Friday, snatching children, shooting adults and carrying off more than 2,000 head of cattle.

The Ethiopian, who declared two days of national mourning, has vowed his government will track down the gun men and rescue the abductees.

Security analysts say although cattle rustling and violence between rival tribal groups is common in the remote region, the scale and ferocity of the attack was unprecedented.

Gambela straddles the border of the two nations and is home to more than 280,000 South Sudanese refugees fleeing a civil war that has raged for more than two years.

Gbandi said the authorities in the two countries were cooperating to ensure security at their border area to avert such criminal acts in future.

"We are cooperating and we hope our cooperation through the relevant security organs we will be able to monitor our border jointly so that to minimize such unfortunate incidents from happening again," Gbandi said.

Gbandi also blamed the immense proliferation of small arms in the hands of the civil population a behind increased insecurity, warning that if the upcoming transitional government does not act fast to rid the population off illegal arms the insecurity will persist.

"This is because of the current situation of insecurity in our country. The upcoming government is going to have a daunting task of disarming our civil population because of the proliferation of small arms in the hands of the civil population is immense and if it is not addressed the security challenges will remain," he said further.

South Sudan got independence from Sudan in 2011 after more than two-decade civil war that left the population awash with guns. Endit