malakal updates

So my wife made it back in one piece.  She was still a little bit shaken up over her whole experience in Malakal.  She said the police unloaded a large amount of tear gas to disperse the chaotic crowd and she swallowed some and got a bunch of it in her eyes.  She also feinted and had to be carried out of the place.

The reports coming out of Malakal at the moment are a little bit conflicting.  People have died in the last few days due to an increased amount of fighting in the area since the incident at the CPA celebration.  The conflicting bit is the number of people that have died.  Sudan Radio service has a report putting the number at just over seventy, while a reuters report indicats only nine have died so far.  Regardless, either  a few or a alot, the whole situation is extrememly tragic.  Shiluk and Dinka are attacking each other, burning out houses, killing and doing all sorts of other things.

There doesn’t seem to be much information going around Juba.  This actually might be a good thing.  When folks here about something that is happening far away, they often imitate or feel the urge to retaliate from this end.  I don’t know if there are so many Shiluk in these parts.  There are alot of Dinkas .  Hopefully they won’t feel the urge to start punching each other around in this town.