Thirty-nine people were killed and dozens of others were wounded when violence broke out between rival groups of cattle herders in South Sudan, officials told AFP on Friday.

The clashes on Wednesday resulted in 19 deaths among herders from northwest Warrap, the state's information minister William Wol Mayom told AFP, while a police spokesman for neighbouring Lakes State, Major Elijah Mabor Makuac, said 20 people were also killed in the violence.