BISSAU, June 28 (Reuters) - Villagers fought with machetes while sharing out meat from a pig sacrificed at a circumcision ceremony in Guinea Bissau, killing two people and injuring three, a government official in the West African country said.

"The tragic scene played out in the villages of Naga and Insume where, during a traditional circumcision ceremony, two rival groups came to blows with machetes while sharing out the meat from a pig sacrificed for the occasion," Guedes Mendes, a local government spokesman, told reporters late on Wednesday.

Mendes said both groups of villagers were Balante -- the country's biggest ethnic group, most of whom practise ancient rituals including circumcising young men, who then retreat to the "sacred forest" and often give relatives pigs to sacrifice.

The former Portuguese country of less than 1.5 million people has suffered years of civil conflict. It has risen to prominence in recent months as the hub of a West African network trafficking cocaine from South America to Europe.

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