May 24, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Militia fighting and tribal clashes have killed more than a hundred people and forced aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres to evacuate staff from some areas of south Sudan, despite a peace deal that ended a civil war.

A researcher who recently visited the area of Jonglei near the border with Ethiopia told Reuters on Wednesday the fighting over the past two months had probably killed hundreds but with no UN or aid presence the figure could be higher.

"I was witnessing a lot of wounded who had been shot by militia or cattle raiders," said David Lochhead, a researcher who recently returned from Akobo town on the border with Ethiopia.

MSF, one of the few providers of assistance in the area, said in a statement it had evacuated staff from hospitals in five locations because of clashes and attacks on villages.

"We are concerned about the growing number of violent incidents," MSF co-ordinator Cristoph Hippchen said in the statement.

MSF said in just one attack on the village of Ulang, 31 were killed and dozens injured.

After two decades of civil war which claimed 2 million lives and forced more than 4 million to flee their homes, Sudan signed a peace deal last year with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

A 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is being deployed to the south to monitor the peace deal, but Lochhead said it had no presence in the areas of the conflict in Jonglei and upper Nile and the fighting had escalated in recent months.

He blamed the fighting on militias who had not yet signed up to the peace deal, tribal clashes and the forced disarmament of the civilian population by the former rebel SPLA who now govern south Sudan.

During the north-south war both sides armed civilians as proxies. Under the deal all armed groups had to join either the northern or southern army and the population was to be disarmed.

But Lochhead, who specializes in small arms, said the disarmament process was leaving some tribes vulnerable to attacks from neighboring tribes who had not been disarmed yet.

"They say they want to be disarmed but they want security guarantees first," he said.

He said the only healthcare center in Akobo, the main town in the area, was run by a local church group and two of its three staff were shot dead in the clinic while he was there.

He added a local tribal peace council had the names of at least 70 people killed in six weeks of fighting in the nearby areas, but many more were caught up in areas difficult to reach.

[Reuters]