Ethnic conflict is on the rise after armed members of the Murle ethnic group retaliated against three villages of the Lou Nuer ethnic group, killing around 100 people, primarily women and children . . . around 6,000 armed Lou Nuer youths had attacked the Murle town of Pibor in late December, displacing tens of thousands of villagers . . . the two tribes are engaged in a cattle war . . . cattle is often the only property of more than 80 percent of the population of South Sudan . . . South Sudan has declared Jonglei, its most populous state, as a “disaster area” and sent 3,000 troops to the region . . . the United Nations also deployed 1,000 troops to try to stop the violence . . . South Sudan is unlikely to be able to stop the cycle of violence between the two tribes . . . continuing violence could become a major threat to the stability of South Sudan.