The weekend raid was reportedly in reprisal for the killing of eight guards of a local Governor.

Five health workers were last weekend killed when South Sudanese soldiers attacked a hospital in Lorema village in Equatoria State in revenge for the deaths of eight members of the security forces, the local Member of Parliament told the BBC.

David Mayo said one doctor, one patient and four nurses had died. Local community leaders confirmed that the hospital was attacked, but the State Governor, Louis Obong, denied the reports. He said no hospital had been attacked and the security situation was normal. Mayo said 13 soldiers were currently being treated in hospital in the state capital, Torit. He blamed the soldiers for the violence, saying they opened fire indiscriminately when they arrived in Lorema before going on to attack the hospital and set fire to local homes.

An army spokesman said he was investigating the reports and any soldier who had committed abuses would face justice. The soldiers were deployed after eight of the Governor's bodyguards were killed when they were sent to track down cattle rustlers. Many residents of the mountainous area around Lorema are heavily armed - even with rocket-propelled grenades - from the two-decade civil war against Sudan.

There is a long history of cattle rustling in Equatoria State, as in many other parts of South Sudan. Cattle lie at the heart of life for many communities in the country as they represent wealth, dowry, property and a source of food in the lean season. A single cow can be worth hundreds of dollars, depending on its colouring.