Up to 300 people have been killed and up to 100,000 displaced during an attack by government forces and allied militia on the oil-rich county in south Sudan, a senior rebel official said this evening.
Another Sudanese source put the toll at more than 1,000. Neither toll could be independently confirmed.
The alleged attack began Friday, a day before Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang held landmark talks in Kampala to boost efforts to end 19 years of civil war in Sudan.
"Our sources on the ground estimate something between 200 and 300 were killed by helicopter gunships, ground forces, horsemen and militia" during a three-day attack on the county of Mayom, in Western Upper Nile, said Michael Chang, the regional coordinator of the Sudan Relief and Rehabiliation Association, the humanitarian arm of the SPLA.
Chang added that Mayom's entire population, estimated to number between 80,000 and 100,000, had fled to neighbouring counties and that others had been abducted with their cattle.
The attack was across "the whole county", he said.
AFP