A cattle raid by rustlers suspected to have come from Unity State’s Panyijar County on the Aliet cattle camp in Lakes State’s Yirol East County on Tuesday evening left one person dead and eight others injured.
Sources however said that a posse of armed youth drawn from Lakes State’s counties of Yirol East, Rumbek Central, and Rumbek North pursued the attackers and recovered most of the stolen cattle which were returned to the owners.
Lakes State Information Minister Paul Cabiet Ayang told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that the assailants came from Unity State and that his government condemned the unfortunate attack.
“It was an unfortunate incident, these are isolated cases and we condemn them in the strongest terms possible because Lakes State has guaranteed the safety of her citizens within its territory. However, some of our neighbors do not have full control of their territories and you can see that by what is happening now around Panyjiar area and Yirol East County,” he said. “As government, we are putting in place measures to ensure that such things do not happen again and we will engage all our neighboring state governments to ensure that there are joint security patrols to protect our people. Theft and looting of cattle is a crime and no government will tolerate it.”
Minister Cabiet said he has been in communication with the commissioner of Panyijar County.
“The Panyijar commissioner is a good person although is an SPLM-IO commissioner, but he is a very good person. He has been coordinating with us but these incidences are being committed by a few individual criminal elements,” he stated. “We urge the Unity State authorities, particularly the commissioner of Panyijar County, to put more work into controlling his people.”
The official also said that among the eight wounded in the attack, one is in critical condition and that the local authorities are undertaking a full assessment of the situation.
He said most of the raided cattle was recovered.
“The good news is that almost all the cattle have been recovered thanks to the cattle camp youth from Rumbek North, Rumbek Central, and Yirol East counties,” Cabiet said and advised: “We call for calm and advise our people and cattle keepers to look after their cattle to prevent theft and raiding. This idea of leaving your cattle to move about without looking after them is not good. The Lakes State government is committed to protecting the people and their properties.”
“We call on our neighbors, particularly the government of Unity State, to improve security around the border of Panyijar with Yirol East County,” the minister urged.