Ethiopian officials are reporting that their military has crossed the border into South Sudan, chasing after a group of gunmen who launched a weekend raid/massacre in the Gambela region, killing at least 208 Ethiopian civilians and wounding 70 others.
The South Sudanese group in question apparently has no connection to either the government or the rebel force in that nation, and launched a raid primarily in an attempt to rustle cattle from an Ethiopian tribe. Things quickly escalated, and in addition to the massacre of civilians, the raiders kidnapped 108 children and took 2,000 head of cattle.
Ethiopian officials claimed to have killed 60 of the raiders the day of the attack, and are trying to track them down in South Sudan. The border region has accepted a large number of South Sudanese refugees from the nation’s civil war.
The Ethiopian Communication Minister says that the araiders are from the Murle ethnic group, and were targeting members of another ethnic group in the area. Violence among such groups is common in South Sudan, and seems to be spreading across the border.