Five children who were abducted during last week’s attack by an armed group suspected to be from the Pibor area are still missing, a local official said.
Four people were killed and five children abducted while 110 head of cattle were raided when armed assailants attacked Wech-Koari village in Ulang County of Upper Nile State early last week.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Saturday, Ulang County Commissioner Riek Gai Gatluak said efforts by local youths to have the abductees recovered were futile.
“The village was attacked at 9 pm while people were asleep. Four people were killed, three wounded, and 110 cows were stolen,” he said. “Our youth also tried to recover four boys and a girl who were abducted but all in vain.”
The commissioner condemned the attack as shocking. He accused youths suspected to have come from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) of involvement in the attack.
“This attack came as a surprise. The youths were in the field preparing for cultivation when the Murle attacked the village. There is no army in the area to provide protection,” he said.
For his part, Abraham Kelang, the GPAA information minister, said no Pibor youths were involved in the attack.
“We don’t have borders with Ulang. Logically our youths cannot pass through Lou Nuer territories to attack there. These people used to have feuds among themselves, so our youths did not make it there,” he concludes.
Cattle raids, often accompanied by child abductions and killings in parts of South Sudan, present a major challenge to the government.
Several attempts to address the proliferation of arms in the hands of civilians have not been successful.