Local officials said that 25 people were killed in South Sudan, after youths from two neighboring towns in the north of the country clashed over the border separating the two regions.
Violence is rampant in areas of southern Sudan where localized clashes over pasture, water, agricultural land and other resources often turn deadly, and ever-changing state policy often helps exacerbate some local conflicts and fuel violence.
In the latest unrest, armed youths from Twik town in Warrap State on the border with Sudan on Monday attacked citizens of the neighboring city of Abyei and also on the border.
"As a result of this armed raid, 15 Tweik people were killed," Eric Mayar Ariak, a deputy representing Warrap state in the national parliament, told Reuters.
Deng Ajak, a local administrative official, said 12 other Abyei town residents died, including two women and a child.
Both officials said that there is a dispute between the two parties over the border separating the two towns, and each side accuses the other of encroaching on its land.
"The situation is worrying and the tension is high," Ariak said, warning that violence may escalate if the conflict is not resolved.
This is the latest deadly clash between the two sides over their dispute over the same piece of land.
Last February, armed youths from Tweik attacked the citizens of Abyei town, killing several people, making others homeless and burning homes.
It is noteworthy that the civil war broke out in South Sudan as soon as it declared its independence from neighboring Sudan in 2011, and put the country's President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his Dinka allies in a confrontation with his deputy Riek Machar and his Nuer tribe.
The peace agreement signed between the two parties 3 years ago has largely held, but the transitional government has been slow in uniting the various army factions.