One person has been arrested following a cattle raid earlier this week at Jalle payam in Bor County of South Sudan's Jonglei state.

Bor County Commissioner Isaac Mamer Ruk told Radio Tamazuj that a militia from Cueikeer Boma in Bor County went after the raiders and managed to arrest one of them at Malou village, while two others escaped.

He said the arrested person has been handed over to the Commissioner of Police. Mamer said over 100 cattle were taken in the raid, but Radio Tamazuj was not able to independently confirm the number of stolen livestock.

Mamer said that the suspect is of the Murle ethnicity, and accused the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) of carrying out the cattle raid, mentioning other alleged incidents of cattle raiding as well as child abductions which he blamed on Murle people.

Reacting to the statement, GPAA Minister of Information Sam David told Radio Tamazuj that any criminal act committed by a Murle person shouldn’t be generalized because each person is an individual.

"We heard that there is a person from Murle who sends people from Murle to kill people in Bor in order to smear the reputation of the Murle tribe,” Sam said.

Sam claimed that the arrested person has admitted that he was sent by some government officials in order to cause insecurity in Bor. However, Sam declined to mention the names of those officials involved.

GPAA Chief Administrator David Yau Yau also did not deny the suspect may be Murle and accused officials in the national and Jonglei state governments of involvement in the cattle raiding.

“There are also individuals involved. The people who steal cattle are not normal citizens, they are being organized. There are people from Jonglei who are involved in organizing such acts," he said.

Yau Yau continued: “The person who was arrested will talk more about what they are doing."

GPAA advisor on political and security affairs Peter Guzulu further denied the allegations of his side's involvement in the raids, saying the Cobra Faction does not steal cattle but arrests cattle raiders.

"Cobra is like any other regular forces of the SPLA, they cannot raid, and they cannot raid, and they are the one even who are collecting these cattle and give them back to the owners," he told Radio Miraya.

This is the first cattle raid in Bor County in more than a month.

Want to comment on this story? Visit us on Facebook to join the discussion. Readers interested in sports are also invited to visit our Tamazuj Sports page for regular updates.