A father was critically injured and his two daughters who were accompanying him from Ethiopia to Pochalla County in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) are missing after being waylaid by armed assailants near the Ethiopia-South Sudan border on Saturday.

Acting Pochalla County Commissioner Owety Olng told Radio Tamazuj Sunday that the attack victim identified as Allan Omot, was taking his family back home for festivities from Ethiopia’s Gambella region where they had sought refuge following the recent deadly violence in Pochalla.

“This attack happened between Kut-Budi and Tedo on Saturday morning. A man called Allan Omot was attacked and critically wounded with three gunshot wounds while his daughters aged 9 and 12 have since gone missing,” he said. “The whereabouts of these children are not known. Those criminals might have gone away with them.”

He accused armed youth from the neighboring Pibor County of carrying out the attack.

Meanwhile, Charles Wello Onyony, a prominent politician from the area and former lawmaker at the national parliament condemned the attack and urged to deploy security forces to beef up security.

“During the recent fighting, our people were displaced as refugees in Ethiopia. But since the army and the National Security Service deployed in Pochalla town at the community's request, the security situation improved but not in locations outside the town,” Wello explained. “So, I appeal for the deployment of forces to our borders to provide protection.”

On his part, Abraham Kelang, the GPAA information minister, said they were aware of the attack and that an investigation was being carried out.

“We learned about this attack on Sunday morning,” he stated. “As a government, we are contacting our county executive directors in Pochalla and we have also informed our commissioners in Pibor to monitor so that those criminals are apprehended if they are indeed from Pibor.”