At least one person was killed, four others injured and over 14,000 head of cattle rustled during an attack by a group of armed youth in Ayod County in Jonglei State over the weekend, authorities said.
James Chuol Jiek, the Ayod County commissioner, told Radio Tamazuj Monday that the incident occurred when the armed group attacked the county’s Goak area in the early hours of Saturday.
“On Saturday at 2 am, a group of youth from Nyirol County attacked Goak Payam killing a woman while three other women and a young girl were injured,” Chuol said. “There were no men in Goak so the attackers just raided the village and also went away with 14, 741 cows.”
The local official pointed out that the area is calm despite the incident and that they are in contact with the Nyirol County authorities to recover the stolen animals.
“The scene of the incident is on our border with Pigi County and it has since been calm. Yesterday (Sunday), some local youths who pursued the attackers returned without the animals but we are communicating with the Nyirol authorities,” Commissioner Choul said.
Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. John Deng, the Nyirol County police inspector, said they are aware of the incident and that they are alert and ready to go recover the stolen cattle.
“The attackers are just a group of a few youths who we accompanying an opposition General called Thomas Mabor who is moving to that side of Malakal,” he said. “We are aware of the attack in Goak and we are monitoring their movement and are ready to recover the cows if they try to cross here.”
On his part, Ter Manyang, the executive director of the civil society organization, Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA), said the situation is worrying and called on the government to deploy troops to quell tensions.
“The SSPDF was supposed to deploy in the area in November but they have not arrived up to now. We are now heading to the dry season and the army is supposed to protect the civilians,” he said. “There is fear that Gawar (Ayod) youth may carry out revenge attacks.”