Governor Odhok on the extreme right during a meeting with UNMISS in Malakal/Courtesy

Authorities in Upper Nile have imposed a three-day dusk-to-Dawn curfew in Malakal town following the inter-communal violence on Thursday morning at the UN Protection for Civilians Site.

According to governor James Odhok, the fighting was triggered by a revenge killing. 

He says , a group from one of the communities stabbed to death another to avenge a member who was killed on Wednesday night, resulting in the deadly violence.

Odhok says one community was forced to flee the fighting that escalated in the use of firearms.

” We as a government, were outside and there were  gunshot exchanges between the tribes inside the UNMISS and the Nuer tribe left the POC and came outside,” he said.

Odhok said that some of the displaced fled to Malakal town while others were taken to a Ghanaian and Bangladesh-UN base.

The governor, UNMISS was compiling data of  causalities from the deadly clashes but the peace mission’s initial report put the death toll at 3 with more then twenty injured.

In the meantime, Odhok said: “We as the state government announced curfew for 72 hours from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.”