Authorities in Lakes State say that eight people were killed, dozens wounded and an unspecified number of cattle raided when armed youth suspected to be from Unity State's Panyijiar County attacked Amongpiny Payam of Rumbek Central County on Saturday.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Lakes State acting minister of information Stephen Mathiang Deng Monydit said, "These are armed youth criminals from the neighboring Unity State. They attacked people in Amongpiny Payam on Saturday and killed eight people. I don’t know how many wounded and how many cattle are raided because we have not yet got the official information about the number of raided cattle  and those who sustained injuries." 

Mathiang added that the state government has sent a reinforcement of security forces to Amongpiny Payam to contain the situation.

For his part, Unity State's information minister Gabriel Hon Makuei confirmed that he had information that the youth in Panyijiar were planning a revenge attack.

"Yes, I have spoken with someone in Juba and he has confirmed it to me that there were indicators that armed youth criminals planned to attack Amongpiny Payam for revenge because last time they lost two people when they clashed with the people from Amongpiny. This might be the reason for the attack," said Hon.

According to him, the insecurity in Panyijiar County is caused by a power vacuum.

“There is a political and leadership vacuum in Panyijiar County. Now, we heard the rumors that the commissioner that was nominated by SPLM-IO has resigned in Juba and one who was imposed by the chief is asked to stay at home. Now, we are trying very hard to speed up with the process of getting a new commissioner of Panyajiar County and when we get a new commissioner then security will be restored," Hon added.

The minister said the lack of a communication network in Panyijiar County remains a security challenge.