About 11 heads of cattle were stolen from Mijak-Kurwai village in Abyei area on Tuesday, a local official said.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj this morning, Abyei’s security adviser Keilek Kon accused the neighboring Misseriya community of stealing their cattle in Mijak County.
“The incident took place in Mijak-Kurwai Village of Mijak County. According to reports, 11 cows were stolen at night,” Keilek said.
But the local official indicated that there were no clashes between the cattle thieves and the villagers.
Keilek further said they reported the incident to the United Nations Interim Security Forces for Abyei (UNISFA).He added that they had contacted a peace committee of Misseriya to return the stolen cattle.
Separately, Keilek said his administration had handed 12 stolen cows to Misseriya community on Monday.” The cows stolen from Misseriya were 45, but we are still working to return the remaining cattle. If we fail to recover the stolen cattle, we will compensate them for the missing cows,” he said.
Sudan and South Sudan are disputing the oil-rich Abyei, an area inhabited by Arab Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities.
In October 2013, the Ngok Dinka community conducted a unilateral popular referendum, in which the vast majority of people voted to join South Sudan. However, neither Sudan nor South Sudan recognized the plebiscite so far.