KHARTOUM - Rebels raided three cattle camps in a remote part of South Sudan's restive Jonglei state on Sunday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens of others, authorities said.

The attackers, armed with automatic weapons and suspected to be loyalists of militia leader David Yau Yau, shot indiscriminately at the camps and stole thousands of cattle, local officials were quoted as saying.

They added that those in critical condition had been airlifted by the UN mission in South Sudan to hospitals in the state capital of Bor and the national capital of Juba.

Yau Yau, the leader of his Murle tribe, rose in rebellion against South Sudan's government after he failed to win a parliamentary seat in the general election in 2010.

According to the United Nations, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Jonglei since South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011.