At least four herdsmen have gone missing and 380 head of cattle were raided in an attack carried out by a group of armed men in Pieri Payam of Uror County in Jonglei State on Wednesday, local officials said.
Machot Gatluak Kenyjak, the Uror county commissioner, told Radio Tamazuj that the incident occurred when the assailants launched a road ambush on the outskirts of Pieri town on Wednesday evening.
“What happened at 5 pm was that four of our local youth were attacked while returning from a grazing site at the outskirts of Pieri town. All 380 cattle were raided and four men who were herding the cattle had since gone missing,” he said.
The local official said a search is ongoing for the missing herdsmen and raided animals. He accused armed youth from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) of involvement in the attack.
Brig. James Marial Galuak, the Uror police inspector, and Gatluak Reath Wol, an Uror youth leader, also confirmed the incident and said the police and local youth were pursuing the attackers in an attempt to recover the stolen animals.
On Wednesday morning, Simon Peter Ajany, the GPAA local government minister, said no youth from his area would be involved in attacks in Jonglei State because of the ongoing fighting in GPAA.