Authorities in South Sudan's Warrap State say calm has returned after at least 14 people were killed and 29 others injured in a cattle raid between the Lou and Luanyjang communities in Tonj North and Tonj East counties respectively.
Warrap state government spokesman Riing Deng Ading told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that the clashes erupted last Friday when some armed youth from Tonj North County raided cattle from the Luanyjang area in Tonj East at Marial Lou village.
Deng said five people from the Marial Lou youth and nine from Tonj East county lost their lives in the clashes.
He added that the armed youth also looted and destroyed the Marial Lou Hospital.
"The hospital is badly destroyed by Luanyjang armed youths and they have looted everything that belongs to the hospital and burned houses around the hospital. The government has evacuated the hospital staff and no patients are wounded or killed in the process of fighting,” Deng said.
The Executive Director of Tonj North County, Ayom Majok Giim said: "At my side, five people were killed and 15 others were wounded in that communal clash. The government has managed to contact the Red Cross to take eight people who sustained serious wounds for further treatments in Wau."
Majok said the situation is now calm and the people of Marial Lou Payam are going about their lives normally.
For his part, Deng Kok, the Tonj East Commissioner said on Monday that the fight was triggered by three criminals from the Lou community who went and stole cows from the Luanyjang area.
"At night the three youth from Lou stole cows from Lang Abyei village in Tonj East County, and they were followed by 25 youths who are the owners of cattle until they clashed at Nyuol village in Marial Lou area where nine people from Luanyjang got killed and 14 others wounded,” he said.
The local official further said the people injured on his side are being treated at the Ngap-Agok health centre.
Dr. Bol Kuol, the Marial Lou Hospital director also said their health staff at the hospital facility were unharmed because they had escaped to the bushes and relocated the patients.
"When we heard information of insecurity, we briefed our staff on what to do, and before the briefing, we heard gunshots outside the hospital and we ran to the bushes and spent the whole night there. We had left the patients there in the hospital when attackers came but they didn't touch them (patients) but looted all food for staff, mattresses, and broken glass windows as fighting continued the second day. Luckily enough we got an ambulance to evacuate the admitted patients to Ngap-Agok health facility," he said.
Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Juba condemned the killings and looting and called on the government to immediately investigate and punish those involved in the clashes.
"The US Mission in South Sudan is greatly concerned by the violence between communities in Tonj East and North, Warrap State, and the tragic loss of life on July 8-9. We condemn the looting of US government-funded food and nutrition commodities. The area is already facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and now will have even less food assistance available, potentially leading to loss of life," the US Embassy in Juba said in a statement. "We strongly urge the government of South Sudan to investigate and prosecute, in full accordance with the rule of law and South Sudan’s international human rights obligation, perpetrators of violence, and criminal looting of assistance."