At least seven people including women have been killed and several others wounded in a Christmas Day attack on Bapiny village in Twic Centre County in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, a local official said.

Jonglei’s Peace Adviser Deng Aguer told Radio Tamazuj today that at least seven people including women were killed and an unconfirmed number of civilians injured in an attack by gunmen after a Christmas church service in the area yesterday.

“The attack took place when people were coming out of the church yesterday, when people were returning back home, those people attacked the area,” said Aguer.” We couldn’t know the number of the people who were wounded because there is no network there,” he added.

The local official pointed out that the attackers came and targeted innocent people in the area, saying they didn’t raid any cattle in the area. He accused criminals from Boma State of involvement in the incident.

“We don’t accuse the government of Boma, because it has exerted great efforts, they always inform us when there are criminals moving in the area, those criminals cannot be controlled by the government,” he said.

Aguer noted that the incident caused fear and panic among local residents in the area. However, he claimed that the security situation returned to normal after the incident.

Meanwhile, Santo Domic, deputy spokesman of the SPLA forces in Juba, denied knowledge of the Bapiny attack by gunmen. Santo accused cattle raiders of involvement in the incident.