Death toll rises from anti-Sudanese violence in S.Sudan: police

The protests in South Sudan's capital Juba on Thursday evening were triggered by reports that fighting in neighbouring, war-torn Sudan earlier in the week had killed 29 South Sudanese.

The unrest then devolved into the looting of businesses owned by Sudanese people, with authorities on Saturday putting the death toll at 12.

Police opened fire to disperse the crowd, killing three people, and violence spread across the country on Friday.

The world's newest nation then imposed a curfew on Friday night, while South Sudan President Salva Kiir called for restraint.

Updating Saturday's toll, a report from South Sudan's police said: "Unfortunately, 16 Sudanese foreign nationals were reported killed" across four states.

Three Sudanese people were killed in Central Equatoria state, nine in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, three in Western Bahr el-Ghazal and one in Upper Nile, the report said.

Police spokesman Colonel John Kassara said in a statement that criminal cases had been opened and "many perpetrators apprehended", without giving exact numbers.

Dozens of people were reportedly wounded, while hundreds of Sudanese sought shelter from the violence.

Juwari Alaminika, 30, took refuge along with her five children in the Buluk police headquarters in Juba.

"We were in a state of fear and anxiety that at any hour... people may come and enter our house and do to us what they did to them (South Sudanese) in Sudan," she told AFP on Sunday.

"Thank God, we have escaped from the crisis and are now safe," she added.

Mohamed Adam, who was also sheltering at the police station, told AFP that he came "to South Sudan seeking safety".

"My shop has been looted... and I lost all the items," Adam said, adding that his brother was wounded in the violence.

By Saturday, Sudanese shopkeepers were returning to their shops, and many who took shelter in the police headquarters were being transferred to the Gorom refugee camp on Monday, the police said.

The curfew remains in force, but is not being respected, an AFP journalist in Juba said.

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbour in 2011 and has been wracked by instability ever since.

It has seen a huge influx of refugees from Sudan since a civil war broke out there in April 2023, killing tens of thousands of people.