Over 100 killed in S Sudan cattle raid

"We lost about 28 civilians" in a remote cattle herders' camp in the remote northern state, Warrap State Information Minister Bol Dhel told the UN-backed Miraya FM radio, adding that police and soldiers then chased the attackers, killing 85.

"Some of them [the attackers] were recaptured on the swamp areas going to Unity State," Dhel added.

South Sudan is awash with guns, and raids between rival communities and ethnic groups are common.

However, the country has also been riven by a brutal civil war since mid-December in which thousands have been killed and forced around a million people to flee their homes.

The fighting is between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir against mutinous troops who sided with Riek Machar, sacked as vice-president in 2013.

The conflict has also taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir's Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar's Nuer people.

However, it was not immediately clear if the cattle raid was connected to the ongoing conflict.