At least 14 people have been killed and dozens wounded in battles over livestock in Toj State last week, a local chief said, the latest in a series of attacks between rival communities.
“14 people have killed in Jalwau and 41 others have been wounded after attacks,” Gum Mading, a traditional leader from Jalwau community, told Radio Tamazuj on Friday.
Mading further said the incident forced many civilians including women and children to leave their homes in Jalwau area. “Cattle raiders from Luanyjang community came and attacked Jalwau community,” he said.
The local chief pointed out that the government intervened and controlled the security situation.
Meanwhile, a youth leader in Jalwau, confirmed the incident, and said: “The incident started when a man from Jalwau community was attacked by cattle raiders from Luanyjang community and his cows were taken on 8 August, but the cows were later recovered after fighting in which one of the attackers was killed”.
“On 9 August, a group of people from Luanyjang launched a revenge attack and killed two people from Jalwau community. On 11 August, people from Luanyjang, Thiik and Agaar communities came and launched an attack on Jalwau community, so this is what happened” he explained.
The youth leader pointed out that about 14 people were killed from their side after the incident on 11 August.” I don’t know the number of the people who lost their lives from the other side,” he said.
However, he revealed that efforts are ongoing to reconcile the rival communities after the incident.” The commissioners of Luanyjang community met and initiated a reconciliation process with Jalwau,” he said.
Luanyjang chiefs could not be reached due to lack of mobile networks there.
Calls to some government officials in Tonj went unanswered.