By Jeremy Clarke

More than 2,300 south Sudanese have died in tribal and rebel violence this year, the United Nations said on Thursday, in an ominous reminder of the insecurity of the region in its final days before independence.

South Sudan is due to secede on Saturday and analysts have said the territory risks becoming a failed state if it cannot control insurgencies and the long-running blood feuds that divide its tribes.

More than 500 people died in the last two weeks of June, the U.N. figures showed, a sharp rise from the 1,800 violent deaths reported in mid-June.

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